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ANALYSES OF 
ORATORICAL STYLE 

Studies and Analyses of Oratorical Style and the 

Fundamental Character of Composition 

of Oratory 



By 



R. E. PATTISON JKLINE 

Dean Public Speaking Department, 
Columbia College of Expression, Chicago 



AMERICAN CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL OF LAW 
CHICAGO 






Copyright. 1914 

By 

AMERICAN CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL OF LAW 

CHICAGO 



FEB 20 1915 



CI-A391810 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction 3 

The Nature, Greatness and Eewards of Elo- 
quence {Cicero) 
I. Edmund Burke 's Speech on Moving His Keso- 
lutions for Conciliation with the Colonies — 

Affairs in Cuba {John M. Thurston) 9 

II. The Heroism of the Unknown — Abraham 

Lincoln {Henry Ward Beecher) 54 

III. Patriotism — The Muck-raker {Julius Kahn) 

—The True Fast {Isaiah 58) 81 

IV. Excerpts from the Speech on ' ' The Mysteries ' ' 
{Andocides) — An Encomium on Evagoras 

{Isocrates) 100 

V. Against Crowning Demosthenes {Aeschines) — 

Demosthenes on the Crown : . . 122 

Index 143 



PREFACE. 

The purpose of the present volume of 
analyses of orations is to furnish a group 
of studies in the methods of oratorical 
style. The educational institutions provide 
much training in writing, but while it is 
excellent as far as it goes, it does not in- 
clude as thorough explanation and practice 
as it should in the particular qualities of 
oratorical composition. 

While the grammar and the general prin- 
ciples of the rhetoric of spoken English 
differ not from those of the written or 
essay style, yet there are distinct differ- 
ences between the two. Since these have 
not been adequately treated in the text 
books upon the subject, the author has pro- 
vided the analyses in the present volume, 
giving the student an opportunity to ac- 
quaint himself with the fundamental char- 
acter of the composition of oratory. 



PREFACE 

Robert Browning says in his poem, 
"Rabbi Ben Ezra,' ' 

"Here work enough to wateh 
The Master work, and catch 
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the 
tool's true play." 

So there is no better way of learning the 
best in oratorical style than by the study 
of the masters. It is hoped, too, that the 
student will become so interested in this 
phase of his study that he will be impelled 
to analyze for himself the orations and 
speeches in the volume, "Selected Speeches 
for Practice. ' ' 

The orations of the present volume will 
furnish material for further practice in de- 
livery. 

R. E. Pattison Kline. 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL 
STYLE 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE NATURE, GREATNESS AND RE- 
WARDS OF ELOQUENCE. 

A discussion by the Latin orator, Cicero, of oratory. 
The student will do well to ponder long over this sig- 
nificant exposition by one of the world's great orators. 

1. The art of eloquence is something 
greater, and collected from more sciences 
and studies than people imagine. For who 
can suppose that, amid the greatest multi- 
tude of students, the utmost abundance of 
masters, the most eminent geniuses among 
men, the infinite variety of causes, the 
most ample rewards offered to eloquence, 
there is any other reason to be found for 
the small number of orators than the in- 
credible magnitude and difficulty of the 
art? A knowledge of a vast number of 
3 



4 ANALYSES OF ORATOKICAL STYLE 

tilings is necessary, without which volubil- 
ity of words is empty and ridiculous; 
speech itself is to be formed, not merely 
by choice, but by careful construction of 
words; and all the emotions of the mind, 
which nature has given to man, must be 
intimately known ; for all the force and art 
of speaking must be employed in allaying 
or exciting the feelings of those who listen. 
2. To this must be added a certain por- 
tion of grace and wit, learning worthy of 
a well-bred man, and quickness and brev- 
ity in replying as well as attacking, accom- 
panied with a refined decorum and urban- 
ity. Besides, the whole of antiquity and 
a multitude of examples is to be kept in 
the memory; nor is the knowledge of laws 
in general, or of the civil law in particular, 
to be neglected. And why need I add any 
remarks on delivery itself, which is to be 
ordered by action of body, by gesture, by 
look, and by modulation and variation of 
the voice, the great power of which, alone 
and in itself, the comparatively trivial art 
of actors and the stage proves, on which 
though all bestow their utmost labor to 



ANALYSES OF OBATOBICAL STYLE 

form their look, voice, and gesture, who 
knows not how few there are, and have 
ever been, to whom we can attend with 
patience ? 

3. What can I say of that repository for 
all things, the memory, which, unless it be 
made the keeper of the matter and words 
that are the fruits of thought and inven- 
tion, all the talents of the orator, we see, 
though they be of the highest degree of 
excellence, will be of no avail? Let us, 
then, cease to wonder what is the cause of 
the scarcity of good speakers, since elo- 
quence results from all those qualifica- 
tions, in each of which singly it is a great 
merit to labor successfully. 

In my opinion, indeed, no man can be 
an orator possessed of every praiseworthy 
accomplishment, unless he has attained 
the knowledge of everything important, 
and of all liberal arts, for his language 
must be ornate and copious from knowl- 
edge, since, unless there be beneath the 
surface matter understood and felt by the 
speaker, oratory becomes an empty and 
almost puerile flow of words. 



b ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 

4. Nothing seems to me more noble than 
to be able to fix the attention of assemblies 
of men by speaking, to fascinate their 
minds, to direct their passions to whatever 
object the orator pleases, and to dissuade 
them from whatsoever he desires. This 
particular art has constantly flourished 
above all others in every free state, and 
especially in those which have enjoyed 
peace and tranquillity, and has ever exer- 
cised great power. For what is so admir- 
able as that, out of an infinite multitude 
of men, there should arise a single indi- 
vidual who can alone, or with only a few 
others, exert effectually that power which 
nature has granted to all? 

5. Or what is so pleasant to be heard 
and understood as an oration adorned and 
polished with wise thoughts and weighty 
expressions? Or what is so striking, so 
astonishing, as that the tumults of the peo- 
ple, the religious feelings of judges, the 
gravity of the senate, should be swayed 
by the speech of one man? Or what, more- 
over, is so kingly, so liberal, so munificent, 
as to give assistance to the suppliant, to 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 7 

raise the afflicted, to bestow security, to 
deliver from dangers, to maintain men in 
the rights of citizenship! 

6. Or consider (that you may not always 
contemplate the forum, the benches, the 
rostra, and the senate) what can be more 
delightful in leisure, or more suited to so- 
cial intercourse, than elegant conversa- 
tion, betraying no want of intelligence on 
any subject? For it is by this one gift 
that we are most distinguished from brute 
animals, that we converse together, and 
can express our thoughts by speech. Who, 
therefore, would not justly make this an 
object of admiration, and think it worthy 
of his utmost exertions, to surpass man- 
kind themselves in that single excellence 
by which they claim their superiority over 
brutes ? 

7. But, that we may notice the most im- 
portant point of all, what other power 
could either have assembled mankind, when 
dispersed, into one place, or have brought 
them from wild and savage life to the 
present humane and civilized state of so- 
ciety; or, when cities were established, 



8 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

have described for them laws, judicial in- 
stitutions, and rights! And that I may 
not mention more examples, which are al- 
most without number, I will conclude the 
subject in one short sentence; for I con- 
sider, that by the judgment and wisdom of 
the perfect orator, not only his own honor, 
but that of many other individuals, and 
the welfare of the whole state, are prin- 
cipally upheld. — Cicero. 



CHAPTER I. 

EDMUND BUBKE'S SPEECH 

ON MOVING HIS EESOLUTIONS FOE CONCILIA- 
TION WITH THE COLONIES. 

Delivered in the House of Commons, 
March 22, 1775. 

The study and analysis of an oration having action as 
its end — action to be secured through an appeal to the 
reason rather than an appeal to the emotions. 

1. I hope, Sir, that, notwithstanding the 
ajasterity of the Chair, your good nature 
will incline you to some degree of indul- 
gence toward human frailty. You will not 
think it unnatural that those who have an 
object depending which strongly engages 
their hopes and fears should be somewhat 
inclined to superstition. As I came into 
the House, full of anxiety about the event 
of my motion, I found, to my infinite sur- 
prise, that the grand penal bill, by which 
we had passed sentence on the trade and 
9 



10 ANALYSES OF ORATOKICAL STYLE 

sustenance of America, is to be returned 
to us from the other House. I do confess, 
I could not help looking on this event as 
a fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort 
of providential favor by which we are put 
once more in possession of our deliberative 
capacity, upon a business f>o very question- 
able in its nature, so very uncertain in its 
issue?) By the return of this bill, which 
seemed to have taken its flight forever, we 
are at this very instant nearly as free to 
choose a plan for our American govern- 
ment as we were on the first day of the 
session. If, Sir, we incline to the side of 
conciliation, we are not at all embarrassed 
(unless we please to make ourselves so) 
by any incongruous mixture of coercion 
and restraint. We are therefore called 
upon, as it were, by a superior warning 
voice, again to attend to America; to at- 
tend to the whole of it together; and to 
review the subject with an unusual degree 
of care and calmness. 

2. Surely it is an awful subject; or there 
is none so on this side of the grave. When 
I first had the honor of a seat in this 



ANALYSES OF OBATOBICAL STYLE 11 

House, the affairs of that continent 
pressed themselves upon us as the most 
important and most delicate object of 
parliamentary attention. My little share 
in this great deliberation oppressed me. 
I found myself a partaker in a very 
high trust; and having no sort of rea- 
son to rely on the strength of my nat- 
ural abilities for the proper execution of 
that trust, I was obliged to take more than 
common pains to instruct myself in every- 
thing which relates to our colonies. I was 
not less under the necessity of forming 
some fixed ideas concerning the general 
policy of the British Empire. Something 
of this sort seemed to be indispensable, in 
order, amidst so vast a( fluctuation of pas- 
sions and opinions, to concenter my 
thoughts, to ballast my conduct, to pre- 
serve me from being blown about by every 
wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did 
not think it safe or manly to have fresh 
principles to seek upon every fresh mail 
which should arrive from America. 

3. At that period I had the fortune to 
find myself in perfect concurrence with a 



12 ANALYSES OE ORATORICAL STYLE 

large majority in this House. Bowing un- 
der that high authority, and penetrated 
with the sharpness and strength of that 
early impression, I have continued ever 
since, without the least deviation, in my 
original sentiments. Whether this be ow- 
ing to an obstinate perseverance in error, 
or to a religious adherence to what ap- 
pears to me truth and reason, it is in your 
equity to judge. 

4. Sir, Parliament, having an enlarged 
view of objects, made, during this interval, 
more frequent changes in their sentiments 
and their conduct than could be justified 
in a particular person upon the contracted 
scale of private information. But though 
I do not hazard anything approaching to 
censure on the motives of former parlia- 
ments to all those alterations, one fact is 
undoubted — that under them the state of 
America has been kept in continual agita- 
tion. Everything administered as remedy 
to the public complaint, if it did not pro- 
duce, was at least followed by, a heighten- 
ing of the distemper ; until, by a variety of 
experiments, that important country has 



ANALYSES OF OBATOKICAL STYLE 13 

been brought into her present situation — 
a situation which I will not miscall, which 
I dare not name; which I scarcely know 
how to comprehend in the terms of any de- 
scription. 

5. In this posture, Sir, things stood at 
the beginning of the session. About that 
time a worthy member of great parlia- 
mentary experience, who in the year 1766, 
filled the chair of the American Committee 
with much ability, took me aside, and, la- 
menting the present aspect of our politics, 
told me, things were come to such a pass 
that our former methods of proceeding in 
the House would be no longer tolerated; 
that the public tribunal (never too indul- 
gent to a long and unsuccessful opposi- 
tion) would now scrutinize our conduct 
with unusual severity; that the very vicis- 
situdes and shiftings of ministerial meas- 
ures, instead of convicting their authors 
of inconstancy and want of system, would 
be taken as an occasion of charging us with 
a predetermined discontent which nothing 
could satisfy, while we accused every 
measure of vigor as cruel, and every pro- 



14 ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 

posal of lenity as weak and irresolute. 
The public, he said, would not have pa- 
tience to see us play the game out with 
our adversaries: we must produce our 
hand. It would be expected that those who 
for many years had been active in such 
affairs should show that they had formed 
some clear and decided idea of the prin- 
ciples of colony government; and were 
capable of drawing out something like a 
platform of the ground which might be 
laid for future and permanent tranquillity. 
6. I felt the truth of what my honorable 
friend represented ; but I felt my situation, 
too. His application might have been 
made with far greater propriety to many 
other gentlemen. No man was indeed ever 
better disposed, or worse qualified, for 
such an undertaking than myself. Though 
I gave so far in to his opinion that I im- 
mediately threw my thoughts into a sort 
of parliamentary form, I was by no means 
equally ready to produce them. It gener- 
ally argues some degree of natural impo- 
tence of mind, or some want of knowledge 
of the world, to hazard plans of govern- 



ANALYSES OF OKATOBICAL STYLE 15 

ment except from a seat of authority. 
Propositions are made, not only ineffect- 
ually, but somewhat disreputably, when 
the minds of men are not properly dis- 
posed for their reception; and for my part, 
I am not ambitious of ridicule; not abso- 
lutely a candidate for disgrace. 

7. Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, 
I have in general no very exalted opinion 
of the virtue of paper government, nor of 
any politics in which the plan is to be 
wholly separated from the execution. But 
when I saw that anger and violence pre- 
vailed every day more and more, and that 
things were hastening toward an incurable 
alienation of our colonies, I confess my 
caution gave way. I felt this as one of 
those few moments in which decorum 
yields to a higher duty. Public calamity 
is a mighty leveler; and there are occa- 
sions when any, even the slightest, chance 
of doing good must be laid hold on, even 
by the most inconsiderable person. 

8. To restore order and repose to an 
empire so great and so distracted as ours, 
is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking 



16 ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 

that would ennoble the flights of the highest 
genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts 
of the meanest understanding. Strug- 
gling a good while with these thoughts, by 
degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, 
at length, some confidence from what in 
other circumstances usually produces tim- 
idity. I grew less anxious, even from the 
idea of my own insignificance. For, judg- 
ing of what you are by what you ought to 
be, I persuaded myself that you would not 
reject a reasonable proposition because it 
had nothing but its reason to recommend 
it. On the other hand, being totally desti- 
tute of all shadow of influence, natural or 
adventitious, I was very sure that, if my 
proposition were futile or dangerous, if it 
were weakly conceived, or improperly 
timed, there was nothing exterior to it, of 
power to awe, dazzle, or delude you. You 
will see it just as it is ; and you will treat 
it just as it deserves. 

9. The proposition is peace. Not peace 
through the medium of war; not peace to 
be hunted through the labyrinth of intri- 
cate and endless negotiations; not peace 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 17 

to arise out of universal discord, fomented 
from principle, in all parts of the empire ; 
not peace to depend on the juridical deter- 
mination of perplexing questions, or the 
precise marking the shadowy boundaries 
of a complex government. It is simple 
peace, sought in its natural course, and in 
its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in 
the spirit of peace, and laid in principles 
purely pacific. I propose, by removing the 
ground of the difference, and by restoring 
the former unsuspecting confidence of the 
colonies in the mother country, to give per- 
manent satisfaction to your people; and 
(far from a scheme of ruling by discord) 
to reconcile them to each other in the same 
act, and by the bond of the very same in- 
terest which reconciles them to British 
government. 

10. My idea is nothing more. Eefined 
policy ever has been the parent of con- 
fusion; and ever will be so, as long as the 
world endures. Plain good intention, 
which is as easily discovered at the first 
view, as fraud is surely detected at last, 
is, let me say, of no mean force in the gov- 



18 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

ernment of mankind. Genuine simplicity 
of heart is a healing and cementing prin- 
ciple. My plan, therefore, being formed 
upon the most simple grounds imaginable, 
may disappoint some people when they 
hear it. It has nothing to recommend it 
to the pruriency of curious ears. There 
is nothing at all new and captivating in it. 
It has nothing of the splendor of the proj- 
ect which has been lately laid upon your 
table by the noble lord in the blue ribbon. 
It does not propose to fill your lobby with 
squabbling colony agents, who will require 
the interposition of your mace at every in- 
stant to keep the peace among them. It 
does not institute a magnificent auction of 
finance, where captivated provinces come 
to general ransom by bidding against each 
other, until you knock down the hammer, 
and determine a proportion of payments 
beyond all the powers of algebra to equal- 
ize and settle. 

11. The plan which I shall presume to 
suggest derives, however, one great advan- 
tage from the proposition and registry of 
that noble lord's project — the idea of con- 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 19 

ciliation is admissible. First, the House, 
in accepting the resolution moved by the 
noble lord, has admitted, notwithstanding 
the menacing front of our address, not- 
withstanding our heavy bills of pains and 
penalties, that we do not think ourselves 
precluded from all ideas of free grace and 
bounty. 

12. The House has gone further: it has 
declared conciliation admissible, previous 
to any submission on the part of America. 
It has even shot a good deal beyond that 
mark, and has admitted that the com- 
plaints of our former mode of exerting 
the right of taxation were not wholly un- 
founded. That right thus exerted is al- 
lowed to have had something reprehensi- 
ble in it, something unwise, or something 
grievous; since, in the midst of our heat 
and resentment, we, of ourselves, have 
proposed a capital alteration; and, in or- 
der to get rid of what seemed so very ex- 
ceptionable, have instituted a mode that 
is altogether new; one that is, indeed, 
wholly alien from all the ancient methods 
and forms of Parliament. 



20 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

13. The principle of this proceeding is 
large enough for my purpose. The means 
proposed by the noble lord for carrying 
his ideas into execution, I think, indeed, 
are very indifferently suited to the end; 
and this I shall endeavor to show you be- 
fore I sit down. But, for the present,! I 
take my ground on the admitted principle.) 
I mean to give peace. Peace implies rec- 
onciliation; and, where there has been a 
material dispute, reconciliation does in a 
manner always imply concession on the 
one part or on the other. In this state of 
things I make no difficulty in affirming 
that the proposal ought to originate from 
us. Great and acknowledged force is not 
impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by 
an unwillingness to exert itself. The su- 
perior power may offer peace with honor 
and with safety. Such an offer from such 
a power will be attributed to magnanimity. 
But the concessions of the weak are the 
concessions of fear. When such a one is 
disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his 
superior; and he loses forever that time 
and those chances, which, as they happen 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 21 

to all men, are the strength and resources 
of all inferior power. 

14. The capital leading questions on 
which you must this day decide are these 
two : First, whether you ought to concede ; 
and secondly, what your concession ought 
to be. On the first of these questions we 
have gained (as I have just taken the lib- 
erty of observing to you) some ground. 
But I am sensible that a good deal more 
is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, to enable 
us to determine both on the one and the 
other of these great questions with a firm 
and precise judgment, I think it may be 
necessary to consider distinctly the true 
nature and the peculiar circumstances of 
the object which we have before us; be- 
cause after all our struggle, whether we 
will or not, we must govern America ac- 
cording to that nature and to those circum- 
stances, and not according to our own 
imaginations, nor according to abstract 
ideas of right; by no means according to 
mere general theories of government, the 
resort to which appears to me, in our pres- 
ent situation, no better than arrant trifling. 



22 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

I shall therefore endeavor, with your leave, 
to lay before you some of the most ma- 
terial of the circumstances in as full and 
as clear a manner as I am able to state 
them. 

15. The first thing that we have to con- 
sider with regard to the nature of the ob- 
ject is, the number of people in the col- 
onies. I have taken for some years a good 
deal of pains on that point. I can by no 
calculation justify myself in placing the 
number below two millions of inhabitants 
of our own European blood and color, be- 
sides at least 500,000 others, who form no 
inconsiderable part of the strength and 
opulence of the whole. This, Sir, is, I be- 
lieve, about the true number. There is no 
occasion to exaggerate where plain truth 
is of so much weight and importance. But 
whether I put the present numbers too 
high or too low, is a matter of little mo- 
ment. Such is the strength with which 
population shoots in that part of the" world, 
that state the numbers as high as we will, 
while the dispute continues, the exaggera- 
tion ends. While we are discussing any 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 23 

given magnitude, they are grown to it. 
While we spend our time in deliberating 
on the mode of governing two millions, we 
shall find we have millions more to man- 
age. Your children do not grow faster 
from infancy to manhood than they spread 
from families to communities, and from 
villages to nations. 

16. I put this consideration of the pres- 
ent and the growing numbers in the front 
of our deliberation; because, Sir, this con- 
sideration will make it evident to a blunter 
discernment than yours, that no partial, 
narrow, contracted, pinched, occasional 
system will be at all suitable to such an 
object. It will show you, that it is not to 
be considered as one of those minima 
which are out of the eye and consideration 
of the law; not a paltry excrescence of the 
state; not a mean dependent, who may be 
neglected with little damage, and provoked 
with little danger. It will prove that some 
degree of care and caution is required in 
the handling such an object; it will show 
that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with 
so large a mass of the interests and feel- 



24 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

ings of the human race. You could at no 
time do so without guilt; and be assured 
you will not be able to do it long with im- 
punity. 

17. But the population of this country, 
the great and growing population, though 
a very important consideration, will lose 
much of its weight if not combined with 
other circumstances. The commerce of 
your colonies is out of all proportion be- 
yond the numbers of the people. This 
ground of their commerce indeed has been 
trod some days ago, and with great ability, 
by a distinguished person, at your bar. 
This gentleman, after thirty-five years — it 
is so long since he first appeared at the 
same place to plead for the commerce of 
Great Britain — has come again before you 
to plead the same cause, without any other 
effect of time, than that to the fire of imag- 
ination and extent of erudition which even 
then marked him as one of the first literary 
characters of his age, he has added a con- 
summate knowledge in the commercial in- 
terest of his country, formed by a long 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 25 

course of enlightened and discriminating 
experience. 

18. Sir, I should be inexcusable in com- 
ing after such a person with any detail, if 
a great part of the members who now fill 
the House had not the misfortune to be 
absent when he appeared at your bar. Be- 
sides, Sir, I propose to take the matter at 
periods of time somewhat different from 
his. There is, if I mistake not, a point of 
view from whence, if you will look at this 
subject, it is impossible that it should not 
make an impression upon you. 

19. I have in my hand two accounts : one 
a comparative state of the export trade of 
England to its colonies, as it stood in the 
year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772 ; 
the other a state of the export trade of this 
country to its colonies alone, as it stood in 
1772, compared with the whole trade of 
England to all parts of the world (the col- 
onies included) in the year 1704. They are 
from good vouchers ; the latter period from 
the accounts on your table, the earlier from 
an original manuscript of Davenant, who 
first established the inspector-general 's 



26 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

office, which has been ever since his time so 
abundant a source of parliamentary infor- 
mation. 

20. The export trade to the colonies con- 
sists of three great branches : the African, 
which, terminating almost wholly in the 
colonies, must be put to the account of 
their commerce; the West Indian; and the 
North American. All these are so inter- 
woven that the attempt to separate them 
would tear to pieces the contexture of the 
whole; and if not entirely destroy, would 
very much depreciate the value of all the 
parts. I therefore consider these three 
denominations to be, what in effect they 
are, one trade. 

21. The trade to the colonies, taken on 
the export side, at the beginning of this 
century, that is, in the year 1704, stood 
thus : — 

Exports to North America and the 

West Indies £483,265 

To Africa 86,665 

£569,930 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 27 

22. In the year 1772, which I take as a 
middle year between the highest and low- 
est of those lately laid on your table, the 
account was as follows: — 

To North America and the West 

Indies £4,791,734 

To Africa - 866,398 

To which, if you add the export 
trade from Scotland, which 
had in 1704 no existence . 364,000 



£6,022,132 



23. From five hundred and odd thou- 
sand, it has grown to six millions. It has 
increased no less than twelvefold. This is 
the state of the colony trade as compared 
with itself at these two periods within this 
century ; and this is matter for meditation. 
But this is not all. Examine my second 
account. See how the export trade to the 
colonies alone in 1772 stood in the other 
point of view, that is, as compared to the 
whole trade of England in 1704. 



28 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

The whole export trade of Eng- 
land, including that to the col- 
onies, in 1704 £6,509,000 

Export to the colonies alone in 
1772 6,022,000 

Difference £487,000 

24. The trade with America alone is now 
within less than £500,000 of being equal to 
what this great commercial nation, Eng- 
land, carried on at the beginning of this 
century with the whole world! If I had 
taken the largest year of those on your 
table, it would rather have exceeded. But, 
it will be said, is not this American trade 
an unnatural protuberance, that has drawn 
the juices from the rest of the body? The 
reverse. It is the very food that has nour- 
ished every other part into its present 
magnitude. Our general trade has been 
greatly augmented, and augmented more 
or less in almost every part to which it 
ever extended; but with this material dif- 
ference, that of the six millions which in 
the beginning of the century constituted 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 29 

the whole mass of our export commerce, 
the colony trade was but one-twelfth part : 
it is now (as a part of sixteen millions) 
considerably more than a third of the 
whole. This is the relative proportion of 
the importance of the colonies at these two 
periods; and all reasoning concerning our 
mode of treating them must have this pro- 
portion as its basis, or it is a reasoning 
weak, rotten, and sophistical. 

25. Mr. Speaker, I can not prevail on 
myself to hurry over this great considera- 
tion. It is good for us to be here. We 
stand where we have an immense view of 
what is, and what is past. Clouds, indeed, 
and darkness rest upon the future. Let 
us, however, before we descend from this 
noble eminence, reflect that this growth of 
our national prosperity has happened 
within the short period of the life of man. 
It has happened within sixty-eight years. 

Analysis. 

Study carefully the first half of the first 
paragraph to determine what effect it 



30 ANALYSES OF ORATOKICAL STYLE 

would have upon the attitude which the 
presiding officers and the members might 
take toward Burke and his subject. An- 
alyze the use of the word, " austerity. ' ' 
See if any other word would do as well. 
Note "deliberative capacity"; study the 
meaning of the word ' ' capacity. ' ' Note in 
the next line the parallel construction, ' ' So 
very questionable in its nature, so very un- 
certain in its issue. ' ' The principle is, that 
ideas of likeness of thought require same- 
ness of form. What is the effect at the 
end of the paragraph, of using the ex- 
pression ' ' to attend ' ' twice ? Note how the 
new paragraph is organically connected 
with the first by the use of the word, 
"subject." 

Paragraph 2. "To concenter my 
thoughts," would "centre" do as well? 

Paragraph 3. In the second line, would 
the word "agreement" serve as well as 
the one used — "concurrence"? Note the 
use of the two terms, "large majority," 
and "that high authority." Note how the 
second and third paragraphs are knit to- 
gether by the expression in the third, "At 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 31 

that time," pointing back to the expression 
in the second, "When I first had the honor 
of a seat in the House. - ' 

Paragraph 4. Note how this paragraph 
is organically related to three and two by 
the expression, "during this interval." 
Place this last expression at any other 
place in the sentence, and study the effect. 
Is it better where it is? Why the word, 
"hazard"? 

Paragraph 5. Note how five is connected 
with all going before by the expression, 
"In this posture." Study the use of the 
word, "posture." Fix in your mind the 
idiom, "come to such a pass." Why not 
"watch," instead of "scrutinize"? Study 
the words of this paragraph. Are they too 
long and unusual for the average man? 

Paragraph 6. What expression in the 
first line connects organically this para- 
graph with the preceding one? Why did 
he say "parliamentary form"? Note at 
the end of the paragraph, how the swifter 
grasp of the thought is secured through 
omitting the "I am" from the last state- 
ment. 



32 ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 

Paragraph 7. Note how the " Beside, 
Sir," links the new paragraph with the 
preceding one. Continuing in the para- 
graph realize how the thought is linked 
further by the expressions, "But when," 
and further down, "I felt this as one." 

Paragraph 8. Be sure to trace the devel- 
opment of thought whereby the first sen- 
tence grows out of the thought of the pre- 
ceding paragraph. Study the word " dis- 
tracted." Study the words, "adventi- 
tious," "futile," "dazzle," "delude." Ask 
first what they mean ; then look them up to 
test your own thought of their meaning; 
finally seek synonyms for them. Would 
any of the synonyms suit in this oration as 
well as the words used ? 

With this paragraph the introduction 
ends. Study the oration thus far very 
carefully, and ask yourself what the effect 
upon the House of Commons would be. 
Has Burke prepared the way so that his 
speech would receive more favorable at- 
tention? Do you feel it is an excellent ap- 
proach to the argument to follow? 

Paragraph 9. Study this paragraph 



ANALYSES OF OKATOBICAL STYLE 33 

carefully. It is a process of definition. 
This method of stating the idea, then tell- 
ing first what it is not, and afterward tell- 
ing what it is, is very common to public 
speech. Grasp how this method of defini- 
tion makes for clearness. Note the four 
parallel constructions beginning with, 
"not." This — parallel construction — is a 
favorite method of speech. What is its 
effect % One of keener clearness or greater 
force? 

Paragraph 10. Study how coherence, 
that is organic connection, is secured be- 
tween this and the foregoing paragraph, by 
the first statement. Note the use of the 
word * ' parent. ' ' Observe how coherence in 
the paragraph is secured by the phrases, 
"My plan," "It has nothing," "There is 
nothing," "It does not," "It does not." 
Again, study the sentence structure — 
simple sentences, making it easy to follow 
the thought. 

Paragraph 11. What secures the organic 
connection between paragraphs ten and 
eleven? What is the effect of the "how- 
ever ' ' in the second line ! Could this word 



34 ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 

be placed elsewhere in the sentence and 
secure the same effect? Consider the part 
beginning " notwithstanding' ' and closing 
with " pains.' ' Suppose an "and" had 
been used instead of the second " notwith- 
standing,' ' what would have been the ef- 
fect? Note how it would appear: 

1 1 Notwithstanding the menacing front of 
our address, and our heavy bills and pen- 
alties." Would not the "and" weaken 
the effect? 

Paragraph 12. Note the logical develop- 
ment: "The House has gone further." 
Note the idiom : ' ' shot a good deal beyond 
the mark." Why not "something repre- 
hensible, unwise, or grievous" instead of 
the way Burke has put it? 

Paragraph 13. Observe the organic con- 
nective "this proceeding." Study care- 
fully his reasoning in this paragraph. Fix 
the use of the preposition : ' i originate from 
us." Could a simpler word than "mag- 
nanimity" have been used? 

Paragraph 14. "Precise judgment," 
examine the force of the adjective. Is any- 
thing gained by the use of the adjective in 



ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 35 

"arrant trifling"? It will be seen that co- 
herence is obtained between the fourteenth 
and fifteenth paragraphs by means of the 
last sentence in fourteen. 

Paragraph 15. Further linking of this 
and the preceding paragraph is secure 
through the use of the term "nature of the 
object" which was used in the fourteenth 
also. Note Burke's care of statement and 
his guarding of his statements that they 
may not fail of their purpose. This care 
to be thoroughly truthful is not evident in 
the work of many speakers. Surely noth- 
ing is gained by stating other than the 
truth. Nothing will more surely bring a 
speaker a following than this strict ad- 
herence to truth. When the people learn 
that a speaker is absolutely reliable in his 
dealing with facts and situations they will 
give him not only respect, but will also 
think twice and most earnestly before they 
turn away from what he has to say. 

Paragraph 16. Study how the thought 
of this paragraph is knit closely together 
by employing similar terms and phrases in 
the sentence structure. Note further how 



36 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

coherence is obtained in fifteen, sixteen and 
seventeen by the expressions, "number of 
people/ ' "the present and the growing 
numbers," "the population of this coun- 
try." 

Paragraph 17. Note the extent to which 
the speaker goes to give weight to the 
testimony of another speaker in the House. 

Paragraph 18. This is a transitional 
paragraph. Occasionally a whole para- 
graph may be used for this purpose. This 
paragraph rather strikingly points the fact 
that Burke took great care to guard every- 
thing he said in order to secure the widest 
and quickest acceptance. Corax, the oldest 
of the Greek teachers of Oratory, taught 
that the speaker must avoid offending his 
audience. He frequently must go farther, 
and pave the way for the acceptance of his 
ideas. 

Paragraph 19. Again notice his care in 
stating the sources of his information. 
When facts, or judgments are given one 
must not fail to apply to them the tests 
used to judge the value of authority. 

Paragraphs 20, 21, 22, and 23 show how 



ANALYSES OF ORATOBICAL STYLE 37 

clearly statistics may be placed before an 
audience. Note how the speaker joints the 
importance of what he is saying by the 
statement in 22, "this is matter for medi- 
tation. ' ' 

Paragraph 25. Of what value is the 
opening statement? Was it said because 
his hearers seemed to be growing restless, 
or to indicate the importance of the mat- 
ter? 



AFFAIRS IN CUBA. 

JOHN M. THURSTON. 

(From a speech delivered in the United 
States Senate, March 24, 1898.) 

The study and analysis of an oration having action 
as its end — action secured through an appeal primarily 
to the emotions rather than to the reason. 

1. I am here by command of silent lips 
to speak once and for all upon the Cuban 
situation. I shall endeavor to be honest, 
conservative, and just. I have no purpose 
to stir the public passion to any action not 
necessary and imperative to meet the du- 
ties and necessities of American responsi- 
bility, Christian humanity, and national 
honor. I would shirk this task if I could, 
but I dare not. I can not satisfy my con- 
science except by speaking, and speaking 
now. 

2. I went to Cuba firmly believing that 
the condition of affairs there had been 

38 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 39 

greatly exaggerated by the press, and my 
own efforts were directed in the first in- 
stance to the attempted exposure of these 
supposed exaggerations. There has un- 
doubtedly been much sensationalism in the 
journalism of the time, but as to the condi- 
tion of affairs in Cuba there has been no 
exaggeration, because exaggeration has 
been impossible. 

3. Under the inhuman policy of "Weyler 
not less than 400,000 self-supporting, sim- 
ple, peaceable, defenseless country people 
were driven from their homes in the agri- 
cultural portions of the Spanish provinces 
to the cities, and imprisoned upon the bar- 
ren waste outside the residence portions of 
these cities and within the lines of in- 
trenchment established a little way beyond. 
Their humble homes were burned, their 
fields laid waste, their implements of hus- 
bandry destroyed, their live stock and food 
supplies for the most part confiscated. 
Most of the people were old men, women, 
and children. They were thus placed in 
hopeless imprisonment, without shelter or 
food. There was no work for them in the 



40 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

cities to which they were driven. They 
were left there with nothing to depend 
upon except the scanty charity of the in- 
habitants of the cities and with slow star- 
vation their inevitable fate. 

4. The pictures in the American newspa- 
pers of the starving reconcentrados are 
true. They can all be duplicated by the 
thousands. I never saw, and please God 
I may never again see, so deplorable a 
sight as the reconcentrados in the suburbs 
of Matanzas. I can never forget to my 
dying day the hopeless anguish in their 
despairing eyes. Huddled about their little 
bark huts, they raised no voice of appeal 
to us for alms as we went among them. 
Their only appeal came from their sad 
eyes, through which one looks as through 
an open window into their agonizing souls. 

5. The Government of Spain has not and 
will not appropriate one dollar to save 
these people. They are now being at- 
tended, and nursed, and administered to 
by the charity of the United States. Think 
of the spectacle! We are feeding these 
citizens of Spain; we are nursing their 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 41 

sick; we are saving such as can be saved, 
and yet there are those who still say it is 
right for us to send food, but we must keep 
hands off. I say that the time has come 
when muskets must go with the food. We 
asked the governor if he knew of any relief 
for these people except through the charity 
of the United States. He did not. We 
asked him, "When do you think the time 
will come that these people can be placed 
in a position of self-support ?" He replied 
to us, with deep feeling, "Only the good 
God or the great Government of the United 
States can answer that question." I hope 
and believe that the good God by the great 
Government of the United States will an- 
swer that question. 

6. I shall refer to these horrible things 
no further. They are there. God pity me ; 
I have seen them; they will remain in my 
mind forever; and this is almost the twen- 
tieth century. Christ died nineteen hun- 
dred years ago, and Spain is a Christian 
nation. She has set up more crosses in 
more lands, beneath more skies, and under 
them has butchered more people than all 



42 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

the other nations of the earth combined. 
Europe may tolerate her existence as long 
as the people of the Old World wish. God 
grant that before another Christmas morn- 
ing the last vestige of Spanish tyranny 
and oppression will have vanished from 
the Western Hemisphere. 

7. I counselled silence and moderation 
from this floor when the passion of the na- 
tion seemed at white heat over the destruc- 
tion of the Maine; but it seems to me the 
time for action has now come. No greater 
reason for it can exist to-morrow than ex- 
ists to-day. Every hour's delay only adds 
another chapter to the awful story of mis- 
ery and death. Only one power can inter- 
vene, the United States of America. Ours 
is the one great nation of the New World, 
the mother of American republics. She 
holds a position of trust and responsibility 
toward the peoples and affairs of the whole 
Western Hemisphere. It was her glorious 
example which inspired the patriots of 
Cuba to raise the flag of liberty in her eter- 
nal hills. We cannot refuse to accept this 
responsibility which the God of the uni- 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 43 

verse has placed upon us as the one great 
power in the New World. 

8. We must act! What shall our action 
be f Some say, The acknowledgment of the 
belligerency of the revolutionists. The 
hour and the opportunity for that have 
passed away. Others say, Let us by res- 
olution or official proclamation recognize 
the independence of the Cubans. It is too 
late for even such recognition to be of great 
avail. Others say, Annexation to the 
United States. God forbid! I would op- 
pose annexation with my latest breath. 
The people of Cuba are not our people; 
they cannot assimilate with us ; and beyond 
all that, I am utterly and unalterably op- 
posed to any departure from the declared 
policy of the fathers, which would start 
this republic for the first time upon a ca- 
reer of conquest and dominion utterly at 
variance with the avowed purposes and the 
manifest destiny of popular government. 

9. There is only one action possible, if 
any is taken; that is, intervention for the 
independence of the island. Against the 
intervention of the United States in this 



44 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

holy cause there is but one voice of dis- 
sent; that voice is the voice of the money- 
changers. They fear war! Not because 
of any Christian or ennobling sentiment 
against war and in favor of peace, but be- 
cause they fear that a declaration of war, 
or the intervention which might result in 
war, would have a depressing effect upon 
the stock market. Let them go. They do 
not represent American sentiment; they 
do not represent American patriotism. 
Let them take their chances as they can. 
Their weal or woe is of but little impor- 
tance to the liberty-loving people of the 
United States. They will not do the fight- 
ing; their blood will not flow. They will 
keep on dealing in options on human life. 
Let the men whose loyalty is to the dollar 
stand aside while the men whose loyalty 
is to the flag, come to the front. 

10. There are those who say that the af- 
fairs of Cuba are not the affairs of the 
United States ; who insist that we can stand 
idly by and see that island devastated and 
depopulated, its business interests de- 
stroyed, its commercial intercourse with 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 45 

us cut off, its people starved, degraded, 
and enslaved. It may be the naked legal 
right of the United States to stand thus 
idly by. I have the legal right to pass 
along the street and see a helpless dog 
stamped into the earth under the feet of 
a ruffian. I can pass by and say, that is 
not my dog. I can sit in my comfortable 
parlor, and through my plate-glass window 
see a fiend outraging a helpless woman 
near by, and I can legally say, this is no 
affair of mine — it is not happening on my 
premises. But if I do, I am a coward and 
a cur, unfit to live, and, God knows, unfit 
to die. 

11. And yet I cannot protect the dog 
nor save the woman without the exercise 
of force. We cannot intervene and save 
Cuba without the exercise of force, and 
force means war; war means blood. The 
lowly Nazarene on the shores of Galilee 
preached the divine doctrine of love, 
" Peace on earth, good will toward men." 
Not peace on earth at the expense of lib- 
erty and humanity. Not good will toward 
men who despoil, enslave, degrade and 



46 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

starve to death their fellow-men. I believe 
in the doctrine of Christ. I believe in the 
doctrine of peace; but men must have lib- 
erty before there can come abiding peace. 
When has a battle for humanity and lib- 
erty ever been won except by force ? What 
barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppres- 
sion has ever been carried except by force? 
12. Force compelled the signature of un- 
willing royalty -to the great Magna Charta; 
force put life into the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and made effective the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation; force waved the flag 
of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked 
the snows of Valley Forge with blood- 
stained feet; force held the broken line at 
Shiloh, climbed the flame-swept hill at 
Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on 
Lookout Heights ; force marched with Sher- 
man to the sea, rode with Sheridan in the 
Valley of the Shenandoah, and gave Grant 
victory at Appomattox; force saved the 
Union, kept the stars in the flag, made 
"niggers" men. The time for God's force 
has come again. Let the impassioned lips 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 47 

of American patriots once more take up 
the song: 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born 
across the sea, 

With a glory in His bosom that transfig- 
ured you and me. 

As He died to make men holy, let us die to 
make men free, 

For God is marching on. 

Others may hesitate, others may procras- 
tinate, others may plead for further diplo- 
matic negotiation, which means delay, but 
for me, I am ready to act now, and for my 
action I am ready to answer to my con- 
science, my country, and my God. 

Analysis. 

The purpose of this speech is to secure 
action. That of Burke upon Conciliation 
was also given to secure action. Compare 
very carefully the method of each. Make 
particular note of the difference in the 
manner of opening the speech. You will 



48 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

see in each, though, the effort to let the au- 
dience know that there will be a strict ad- 
herence to truth and principle. There is 
to be no supplanting of reason by passion. 

Paragraph 1. By "silent lips' ' is meant 
those of his wife who had died a short time 
before the making of the address. Meas- 
ure the strength given to his opening words 
" honest,' ' "conservative," "just," "du- 
ties, ' ' " responsibilities, " " humanity, ' ' 
"honor." Memorize this opening para- 
graph and speak it, getting first into the 
spirit of it. Try to give it the strength, 
steadiness, and reasonableness which it 
demands. 

Paragraph 2. When one is compelled 
after careful examination first hand to 
change his judgment of things, respect 
must be given to his new judgment. 

Paragraph 3. This and four satisfy the 
statement that conditions cannot be exag- 
gerated. What is the effect of the descrip- 
tive terms, ' ' self-supporting, simple, peace- 
able, defenseless"? They give informa- 
tion, but is that the sole purpose? "Their 
humble homes were burned, etc." Note 



ANALYSES OF OBATOKICAL STYLE 49 

the cumulation of facts: force through 
mass. "Old men, women and children' ' — 
would it have been weaker to say, "Chil- 
dren, women and old men"? If so, why? 

Paragraph 4. Note the securing of co- 
herence between three and four by use of 
terms, i i starvation, ' ' and i l starving recon- 
eentrados." What effect is intended by 
this paragraph? 

Paragraph 5. How naturally follows this 
first sentence. The speaker has created 
an impression in the heart of the listener 
that these people ought to be saved. Only 
the inhuman would refuse to save them. 
That Spain will not save them comes as a 
terrible shock. Is not his leading up to 
the demands for arms practically unan- 
swerable ! 

Paragraph 6. What is the effect of re- 
stating the terrible condition of affairs 
after stating that he will not mention them 
further? Note that very quick turn of 
thought in: "And this is almost the twen- 
tieth century." Study his method care- 
fully from this point to the end of the par- 
agraph. At the end he makes his first real 



50 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

demand for action, and it comes after 
there has been an exceedingly strong ap- 
peal to the feelings. ' ' High actions through 
and by high passions," says Choate. 

Paragraph 7. He himself has just made 
an appeal to passion, yet here he tells us 
that he counselled silence and moderation 
at another tbi~ e. Is ,his appeal to passion 
now any more justified than the appeal to 
passion would have been in the former in- 
stance ? Are his facts upon which he bases 
his appeal to passion any more reliable? 
Is his argument relative to our respon- 
sibility well taken? 

Paragraph 8. Note the coherence se- 
cured between this and the preceding para- 
graph by the first statement. It also car- 
ries a strong emotional effect. Make care- 
ful comparison of the eighth and ninth 
paragraphs with Burke 's method. His ap- 
peal is primarily to the intellect. Thurs- 
ton's appeal is primarily to the emotions. 
Thurston said that he would be conserva- 
tive and just. Is he actually either in his 
appeal and argument in the ninth? Prac- 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 51 

tically no fault may be found with this 
method, but is strict justice done! 

Paragraph 10. Note the principle in- 
volved in his illustration of the dog and the 
woman. One is seeking to get another to 
act in a given way, the work will be easier 
if it can be shown that in other matters 
the individual has acted upon the very 
principle upon which action is now- sought. 

Paragraph 11. Observe that the topic 
for the eleventh paragraph is the conclu- 
sion to the tenth paragraph. Would it have 
been better to put the opening statement 
of this paragraph as the closing statement 
of the tenth? The swiftness with which he 
turns his illustration to account in apply- 
ing it to the Cuban situation makes for 
great force. There is a fine bit of work done 
in anticipating the argument that might be 
in the minds of some, and answering it, — 
namely that war is not justified by Chris- 
tianity. This anticipating opposing argu- 
ment in the minds of hearers and answer- 
ing it is one of the marks of really effec- 
tive argumentation. The skillful speaker 
will always need to know what arguments 



52 ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 

may be brought against his own proposi- 
tions, and be ready to answer them. Study 
also the effect of the short sentences and 
statements. What is gained by them? It 
may be put down as one of the character- 
istics of oral composition, that it uses sim- 
pler and shorter sentences than does writ- 
ten composition, that is, than does the 
essay. — -Observe, too, that several of the 
statements are not complete sentence 
structures. There is no lack of clearness, 
for the mind instantly supplies, without 
effort, the parts omitted. This is called 
ellipsis. The omission of sentence ele- 
ments that may easily be supplied by the 
hearer is another mark of the oration. — 
How much stronger the questions at the 
end of the paragraph are, than the direct 
statements of the same idea would have 
been. — As you read orations and speeches 
make a study of the manner in which inter- 
rogative sentences are used. 

Paragraph 12. This paragraph answers 
the question which has been asked in 
eleven. The word "force" is used six 
times. Note the cumulation of power with 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 53 

the cumulation of facts and the repetition 
of the same term. Here again we find a 
particular device of speech. The same 
word or phrase is frequently repeated in 
order to cumulate force. It becomes the 
emphatic element. — What do you think 
of the effectiveness of the quotation of 
poetry? Would it have been better to stop 
with the quotation, or has greater effec- 
tiveness been secured by the speaker's last 
statement 1 Weigh the matter carefully. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE HEROISM OF THE UNKNOWN. 

The study and analysis of an oration having impress- 
iveness as its end, an illustration of atmosphere. 

First. Thirty years ago to-day, these 
peaceful scenes were echoing with the roar 
and din of what a calm and unimpassioned 
historian, writing of it long years after- 
ward, described as the "greatest battle- 
field of the New World.' ' Thirty years 
ago to-day the hearts of some thirty mil- 
lions of people turned to this spot with 
various but eager emotions, and watched 
here the crash of two armies which gath- 
ered in their vast embrace the flower of a 
great people. Never, declared the sea- 
soned soldiers who listened to the roar of 
the enemy's artillery, had they heard any- 
thing that was comparable with it. Now 
and then it paused, as though the very 
throats of the mighty guns were tired ; but 
only for a little. Not for one day, nor for 
two, but for three, raged the awful con- 
54 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 55 

flict, while the Republic gave its best life 
to redeem its honor, and the stain of all 
previous blundering and faltering was 
washed white forever with the blood of its 
patriots and martyrs. 

Second. How far away it all seems, as 
we stand here to-day! How profound the 
contrast between those hours and days of 
bloodshed and the still serenity of nature 
as it greets us now! The graves that 
cluster around us here, the peaceful rest- 
ing-places of a nation's heroes, are green 
and fair; and, within them, they who fell 
here, after life's fierce and fitful fever, 
are sleeping well. 

Third. In their honor we come here, my 
brothers, to consecrate this monumental 
shaft. What, now, is that one feature in 
this occasion which lends to it its supreme 
and most pathetic interest? There are 
other monuments in this city of a nation's 
dead, distinguished as these graves that lie 
about us here can never be. There are the 
tombs and memorials of heroes whose 
names are blazoned upon them, and whose 
kindred and friends, as they have stood 



56 ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 

round them, have repeopled this scene with 
their vanished forms, have recalled their 
lineaments, have recited their deeds, and 
have stood in tender homage around forms 
which were once to them a living joy and 
presence. But for us to-day there is no 
such privilege, no such tender individual- 
ity of grief. These are our unknown dead. 

Fourth. And so, as we come here to-day 
and plant this column, consecrating it to 
its enduring dignity and honor as the 
memorial of our unknown dead, we are 
doing, as I cannot but think, the fittest 
possible deed that we could do. These un- 
known that lie about us here — ah, what are 
they but the peerless representatives, elect 
forever by the deadly gage of battle, of 
those sixty millions of people, as to-day 
they are, whose rights and liberties they 
achieved ! Unknown to us are their names ; 
unknown to them were the greatness and 
the glory of their deeds ! And is not this, 
the story of the world's best manhood, and 
of its best achievement 1 

Fifth. The work by the great unknown, 
for the great unknown — the work that, by 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 57 

fidelity in the ranks, courage in the 
trenches, obedience to the voice of com- 
mand, patience at the picket-line, vigilance 
at the outpost, is done by that great host 
that bear no splendid insignia of rank, and 
figure in no commander's dispatches — this 
work, with its largest and incalculable 
and unforeseen consequences for a whole 
people — is not this work, which we are 
here to-day to commemorate, at once the 
noblest and most vast? Who can tell us 
now the names, even, of those that sleep 
about us here; and who of them could 
guess, on that eventful day when here they 
gave their lives for duty and their coun- 
try, how great and how far-reaching would 
be the victory they should win? 

Sixth. And thus we learn, my brothers, 
where a nation's strength resides. When 
the German emperor, after the Franco- 
Prussian war was crowned in the Salles 
des Glaces at Versailles, on the ceiling of 
the great hall in which that memorable 
ceremony took place there were inscribed 
the words : ' ' The King Eules by His Own 
Authority.' ' "Not so," said that grand 



58 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

man of blood and iron who, most of all, 
had welded Germany into one mighty peo- 
ple — "not so : 'The kings of the earth shall 
rule under me, saith the Lord.' Trusting 
in the tried love of the whole people, we 
leave the country's future in God's 
hands ! " Ah, my countrymen, it is not this 
man or that man that saved our Bepublic 
in its hour of supreme peril. Let us not, 
indeed, forget her great leaders, great gen- 
erals, great statesmen, and, greatest 
among them all, her great martyr and 
President, Lincoln. 

Seventh. But there was no one of these 
then who would not have told us that which 
we may all see so plainly now, that it was 
not they who saved the country, but the 
host of her great unknown. These, with 
their steadfast loyalty, these with their 
cheerful sacrifices, and these, most of all 
with their simple faith in God and in the 
triumph of His right — these they were who 
saved us! Let us never cease to honor 
them and to trust them; and let us see to 
it that neither we nor they shall ever cease 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 59 

to trust in that overarching Providence 
that all along has led them. 

Eighth. It was God in the people that 
made the heroism which, in these unknown 
ones, we are here to-day to honor. It must 
forever be God in and with the people that 
shall make the nation great and wise and 
strong for any great emergency. 

In that faith, we come here to rear this 
monument and to lay the tribute of our 
love and gratitude upon these graves. May 
no alien or vandal hand ever profane their 
grand repose who slumber here! And 
when the sons of freedom, now unborn, 
through generations to come shall gather 
here to sing again the praises of these un- 
known martyrs for the flag, may they kneel 
down beside these graves and swear anew 
allegiance to their God, their country, and 
the right ! 

From Bishop Potter's oration on "Heroism of the 
Unknown," as published in "The Scholar and the 
State," by permission of the Century Co. 

Analysis. 
The purpose of this speech by Bishop 
Potter is that of creating feeling — impres- 



60 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

siveness. It is a memorial address. If 
the speaker has succeeded in his intention 
his audience will go away with a stronger 
and a deeper sense of patriotism. Study 
carefully the process whereby there is de- 
veloped the spirit of patriotism. Sense 
thoroughly the atmosphere developed by 
such words as "roar and din," "crash," 
"roar," "raged." Study the contrasting 
words in the first sentence. Meditate 
upon the sentence until you feel the force 
of each important word, then speak it, 
experiencing the idea each strong word 
stands for. See that the voice expresses 
in sound the thought of "peaceful," "roar 
and din," "calm and unimpassioned," 
"greatest battlefield of the New World." 
— Suppose the first part of the last sen- 
tence had been written, "The awful con- 
flict raged not for one day, nor for two, 
but for three, ' ' what would the effect have 
been? It would have been a much weaker 
sentence. This first part of the sentence 
is an example of inversion, that is, the 
ideas are not expressed in their normal 
order, subject with its modifiers, then verb 



ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 61 

with its modifiers. This is another favor- 
ite device of the speaker. Study it care- 
fully, for it makes for both clearness and 
force. It compels closer attention on the 
part of the hearer. Note again: Suppose 
it had been written this way: "For three 
days raged the awful conflict." Is the 
briefer form less strong than the longer? 
It surely is. ( While the rhetoric of oral 
composition demands the briefer form 
when possible, it will be observed that often 
greater force comes through the longer 
form, or the increase of words. ( Make a 
careful study of these two points in all 
your reading of speeches. They are dis- 
tinctive. \ 

Paragraph 2. The speaker creates here 
just as strong an atmosphere of peace as 
of din in the first paragraph. Hear the 
two paragraphs delivered orally and note 
how each is more forceful in its atmosphere 
because of the other, v The law of contrast 
is found in all art, and oratory uses it 
frequently. > 

Paragraph 3. How is coherence secured 
in these two paragraphs? Is the question 



62 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

more effective than the direct statement 
would have been? Observe how the things 
about him suggest the method of his 
speech. Note the parallelism of form. — 
"Lineaments," could a simpler word have 
been used / 

Paragraph 4. Organic connection is se- 
cured through the word, " unknown. ' ' 
Study further how the speaker continues 
to use the "unknown" to develop his 
thought. This word links also five and 
four. 

Paragraph 5. Note the parallelism and 
cumulation in this paragraph. Observe 
how the author keeps the subject before 
his audience by the repetition of the word, 
"work." 

Paragraph 6. Study the actual value of 
the illustration in the anecdote of the Ger- 
man Emperor. "Ah, my countrymen," 
would you expect to find this expression or 
any similar one, in the pure essay style? 
Does this whole oration show a strong per- 
sonal touch? Does the speaker speak at 
the audience or talk with it? 

Paragraph 7. What is the antecedent of 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 63 

"these"! Note the use of "these" to 
secure coherence. 

Paragraph 8. Note the connection of 
eight with seven through "God — Provi- 
dence. " "In that faith, ? ' the antecedent of 
"that faith' ' is the thought of the sentence 
preceding, (in securing coherence the wis- 
est method is to make a word, or phrase 
the antecedent of the pronoun) 

Finally, study the simplicity of the 
speech, and the sentence structure. A 
number of the sentences are long, but they 
are not complex and involved. Another 
point of interest lies in the fact that few 
long words have been used. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

HENRY WAKD BEECHER. 

Tlie study and analysis of an oration having impressive- 
ne? as its end, with appeals also to belief and action. 

1. There is no historic figure more noble 
than that of the Jewish lawgiver. After 
so many thousand years, the figure of 
Moses is not diminished, but stands up 
against the background of early days dis- 
tinct and individual as if he had lived but 
yesterday. There is scarcely another 
event in history more touching than his 
death. He had borne the great burdens of 
state for forty years, shaped the Jews to 
a nation, administered their laws, dealt 
with them in all their journey ings in the 
wilderness; had mourned in their punish- 
ment, kept step with their march, and led 
them in wars until the end of their labors 
drew nigh. The last stage was reached. 
Jordan, only, lay between them and "the 
64 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 65 

Promised Land. ' ' The Promised Land ! 0, 
what yearnings had heaved his breast for 
that divinely foreshadowed place ! All his 
long, laborious, and now weary life, he had 
aimed at this as the consummation of 
every desire, the reward of every toil and 
pain. Then came the word of the Lord to 
him, "Thou mayest not go over. Get thee 
up into the mountain; look upon it; and 
die!" 

2. From that silent summit the hoary 
leader gazed to the north, to the south, to 
the west, with hungry eyes. The dim out- 
lines rose up. The hazy recesses spoke of 
quiet valleys between hills. With eager 
longing, with sad resignation, he looked 
upon the Promised Land. It was now to 
him a forbidden land. This was but a 
moment's anguish, he forgot all his per- 
sonal wants, and drank in the vision of his 
people's home. His work was done. There 
lay God's promise fulfilled. Joy chased 
sadness from every feature, and the 
prophet laid him down and died. 

3. Again a great leader of the people 
has passed through toil, sorrow, battle, 



66 ANALYSES OF ORATOKICAL STYLE 

and war, and come near to the promised 
land of peace, into which he might not 
pass over. Who shall recount our martyr's 
sufferings for this people! Since the No- 
vember of 1860, his horizon has been black 
with storms. By day and by night he trod 
a way of danger and darkness. On his 
shoulders rested a government dearer to 
him than his own life. At its integrity mil- 
lions of men at home were striking: upon 
it foreign eyes lowered. It stood like a 
lone island in a sea full of storms; and 
every tide and wave seemed eager to de- 
vour it. Upon thousands of hearts great 
sorrows and anxieties have rested, but not 
on one, such, and in such measure, as upon 
that simple, truthful, noble soul, our faith- 
ful and sainted Lincoln. He wrestled 
ceaselessly, through four black and dread- 
ful purgatorial years, wherein God was 
cleansing the sins of his people as by fire. 
4. At last the watcher beheld the gray 
dawn. for the country. The mountains be- 
gan to give forth their forms from out of 
the darkness; and the East came rushing 
toward us with arms full of joy for all our 



ANALYSES OP OKATOEICAL STYLE 67 

sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad 
exceedingly, that had sorrowed immeasur- 
ably. Peace could bring to no other heart 
such joy, such rest, such honor, such trust, 
such gratitude. But he looked upon it as 
Moses looked upon the Promised Land. 
Then the wail of a nation proclaimed that 
he had gone from among us. 

5. (Never did two such orbs of experi- 
ence meet in one hemisphere, /as the joy 
and the sorrow of the same week in this 
land./' The joy of final victory was as sud- 
den as if no man had expected it, and as 
entrancing as if it had fallen a sphere from 
heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and 
swept business from its moorings, and ran 
down through the land in irresistible 
course. Men embraced each other in broth- 
erhood that were strangers in the flesh. 
They sang, or prayed, or, deeper yet, many 
could only think thanksgiving and weep 
gladness. That peace was sure; that our 
government was firmer than ever ; that the 
land was cleansed of plague ; that the blood 
was staunched and scowling enmities were 
sinking like storms beneath the horizon; 



68 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

that the dear fatherland, nothing lost, 
much gained, was to rise up in unexampled 
honor among the nations of the earth, — all 
these kindled up such a surge of joy as no 
words may describe. 

6. In one hour, under the blow of a sin- 
gle bereavement, joy lay without a pulse, 
without a gleam or breath./ A sorrow came 
that swept through the land as huge storms 
sweep through the forest and field, rolling 
thunder along the sky, disheveling the flow- 
ers, daunting every singer in thicket or for- 
est, and pouring blackness and darkness 
across the land and upon the mountains. 
Did ever so many hearts, in so brief a time, 
touch two such boundless feelings 1 (It was 
the uttermost of joy — it was the uttermost 
of sorrow; — noon and midnight without a 
space between! J 

7. The blow brought not a sharp pang. 
It was so terrible that at first it stunned 
sensibility. Citizens were like men awak- 
ened at midnight by an earthquake, and 
bewildered to find everything that they 
were accustomed to trust wavering and 
falling. They wandered in the streets as if 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 69 

groping after some impending dread, or 
undeveloped sorrow. There was a piteous 
helplessness. Strong men bowed down and 
wept. Other and common griefs belonged 
to some one in chief; this belonged to all. 
It was each and every man's. Every vir- 
tuous household in the land felt as if its 
firstborn were gone. Men were bereaved, 
and walked for days as if a corpse lay un- 
buried in their dwellings. There was noth- 
ing else to think of. They could speak of 
nothing but that; and yet, of that they 
could speak only falteringly. 

8. All business was laid aside. Pleasure 
forgot to smile. The great city for nearly 
a week ceased to roar. The huge Levia- 
than lay down and was still. Even avarice 
stood still, and greed was strangely moved 
to generous sympathy and universal sor- 
row. Rear to his name monuments, found 
charitable institutions, and write his name 
above their lintels; but no monument will 
ever equal the universal, spontaneous, and 
sublime sorrow that in a moment swept 
down lines and parties, covered up ani- 
mosities, and in an hour brought a divided 



70 ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 

people into unity of grief and indivisible 
fellowship of anguish. 

9. This blow was aimed at the life of the 
government and of the nation. Lincoln 
was slain; America was meant. The man 
was cast down; the government was smit- 
ten at. (It was the President who was killed, 
it was national life, breathing freedom and 
meaning beneficence, that was sought. ) He, 
the man of Illinois, the private man, di- 
vested of robes and the insignia of author- 
ity, representing nothing but his personal 
self, might have been hated ; but that would 
not have called forth the murderer's blow. 
It was because he stood in the place of gov- 
ernment, representing government and a 
government that represented right and lib- 
erty, that he was singled out. 

10. The blow, however, had signally 
failed. The cause is not stricken; it is 
strengthened. This nation has dissolved — 
but in tears only. It stands, four-square, 
more solid, to-day, than any pyramid in 
Egypt. This people are neither wasted, 
nor daunted, nor disordered. Men hate 
slavery and love liberty with stronger hate 



ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 71 

and love to-day than ever before. Even 
he who now sleeps has, by this event, been 
clothed with new influence. / Dead, he 
speaks to men who now willingly hear what 
before they refused to listen to.\ Now, his 
simple and weighty words will be gathered 
like those of Washington, and your chil- 
dren and your children's children shall be 
taught to ponder the simplicity and deep 
wisdom of utterances which, in their time, 
passed, in the party heat, as idle words. 
Men will receive a new impulse of patriot- 
ism for his sake, and will guard with zeal 
the whole country which he loved so well. 
11. You I can comfort; but how can I 
speak to that twilight million to whom his 
name was as the name of an angel of God! 
There will be wailing in places which no 
ministers shall be able to reach. When in 
hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilder- 
ness, in the field throughout the South, the 
dusky children, who looked upon him as 
that Moses whom God sent before them to 
lead them out of the land of bondage, learn 
that he has fallen, who shall comfort them? 
Oh, thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst 



72 ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 

comfort thy people of old, to thy care we 
commit the helpless, the long wronged and 
grieved ! 

12. And now the martyr is moving in 
triumphal march, mightier than when 
alive. The nation rises up at every stage 
of his coming./^ Cities and states are his 
pall-bearers} and the cannon beats the 
hours with solemn progression. Dead — 
dead — dead — he yet speaketh! Is Wash- 
ington dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David 
dead? (_Is any man dead that ever was fit 
to live?y Disenthralled of flesh, and risen 
to the unobstructed sphere where passion 
never comes, he begins his illimitable work. 
His life now is grafted upon the Infinite, 
and will be fruitful as no earthly life can 
be. Pass on, thou that hast overcome! 
Your sorrows, people, are his peace! 
Your bells and bands, and muffled drums 
sound triumph in his ear. Wail and weep 
here; God makes it echo joy and triumph 
there. Pass on, thou victor ! 

13. Four years ago, Illinois, we took 
from your midst an untried man, and from 
among the people ; we return him to you a 



ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 73 

mighty conqueror. Not thine any more, 
but the nation's; not ours, but the world's. 
Give him place, ye prairies ! In the midst 
of this great continent his dust shall rest, a 
sacred treasure to myriads who shall make 
pilgrimage to that shrine to kindle anew 
their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds, that 
move over the mighty places of the West, 
chant his requiem! (Ye people, behold a 
martyr, whose blood, as so many articulate 
words, pleads for fidelity, for law, for lib- 
erty! ) 

Analysis. 

This is another memorial address, but 
of a very different nature from that by 
Bishop Potter. The pointing of truth, 
facts, and the presence of argument make 
this different. When studying this oration 
it will be well to remember that Mr. 
Beecher was a close friend to Mr. Lincoln. 
Outside of his official family Lincoln 
trusted few men as he did Beecher. 
Beecher was sent to England to make a 
number of addresses that the Engiishmight 



74 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

be thoroughly and reliably informed of the 
attitude and purpose of the Northern gov- 
ernment. Beecher succeeded in turning an 
almost hostile sentiment to one of support 
of the Northern cause. This speech was 
delivered very soon after Lincoln's assas- 
sination. 

The student will recognize the added 
power gained by the comparison which 
Beecher makes between Moses and Lin- 
coln. The inventive ability needs to be 
called into use as much in building a speech 
as in making a machine. 

Paragraph 1. "He had borne the great 
burdens of state for forty years,' ' etc., note 
the cumulation and parallelism here. ' ' The 
Promised Land ! ' ' The exclamation is an- 
other device peculiar to oratory. The ut- 
terance of the exclamation presupposes a 
large background of thought and emotion. 
It is this background which gives the in- 
tense power to the exclamation. All that 
the Promised Land means must be borne in 
mind if the voice is to give any power to 
the exclamation. 

Paragraph 2. At the end of the para- 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 75 

graph, study the last sentence. Observe 
its balance. " Joy chased sadness from ev- 
ery feature/ ' is finely balanced by "the 
prophet laid him down and died." Is the 
use of " chased' ' a wise one? 

Paragraph 3. In this paragraph an in- 
tense emotional color is obtained by choice 
of forceful words, striking comparisons 
and figures of speech. Note particularly 
the last sentence. Beecher speaks in meta- 
phor. He speaks of one idea in terms of 
another. It will be well to make more than 
an ordinary study of all passages that are 
not literal in their nature. A figurative 
passage may be used for either force or 
clearness. Its value lies in the fact that it 
forces home the thought by likening it to 
something better known. 

Paragraph 4. This paragraph opens 
with a figure of speech. Is the result 
greater force or an aid to clearness? Note 
the next figure of speech: "the East came 
rushing toward us." This is personifica- 
tion; the giving of characteristics of per- 
sonality to inanimate objects, or elements. 
The idea Beecher wishes to convey is 



76 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

surely expressed with marked vividness 
by his figure. — Note the balance in the sen- 
tence: "Then it was for him to be glad, 
etc." 

Paragraph 5. Note the metaphor in the 
first sentence. What is an orb? What an 
intensification of the idea he secures 
through this metaphor! — Note the climax 
in the sentence, "It rose up, etc." — Study 
the cumulation at the last half. Observe 
that after all the elements have been men- 
tioned, he binds them together with the ex- 
pression, "all these." 

Paragraph 6. Examine the first sen- 
tence. At the end it contains a rather un- 
usual example of climax. — Note the climax 
in the succeeding sentence. Study the 
balance structure in the last sentence. 

Paragraph 7. Coherence is obtained by 
use of the word "blow" which was used in 
the opening sentence of the preceding par- 
agraph. — Study the simile: "like men 
awakened at midnight by an earthquake. ' p 
Be sure to note that the sentences of this 
paragraph are not only short, but normal 
in type: subject, predicate, object. Ob- 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 77 

serve the simplicity that is gained thereby. 

Paragraph 8. This paragraph continues 
the development of the thought in seven. 
There is a continued use of the same type 
of sentences. Examine carefully how he 
summarizes and emphatically points his 
idea in the sentence beginning "Bear to 
his name, etc." Take note of the develop- 
ment toward climax at the end of the sen- 
tence. 

Paragraph 9. Study this paragraph 
carefully. Note the use of the word 
"blow" again at the opening of this and 
also the succeeding paragraph. Vividly 
does this repetition of the word keep before 
us the idea he is talking about. Observe, 
beginning with the second sentence, the 
three sentences of parallel construction, 
and further observe that they are balanced 
sentences also. Examine the sentence be- 
ginning, "He the man of Illinois," — it is a 
suspended sentence. This sentence sus- 
pends the main idea until the end of the 
sentence is reached. The last sentence in 
the paragraph is also suspended. This 



78 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

type of sentence compels close attention on 
the part of the hearer. 

Paragraph 10. Study the balance in the 
second and third sentences. Suppose the 
sixth sentence had been written: "Men 
hate slavery and love liberty more today 
than ever before." Why is the other sen- 
tence stronger? 

Paragraph 11. "When in hovel and in 
cot, etc." Does the enumeration in this 
sentence add to the effectiveness? Why, 
if so? 

Paragraph 12. Lincoln's body was being- 
taken back to Illinois. "Cities and states 
are his pall-bearers. ' ' Is it an effective 
figure of speech? — Make sure to get the 
principle underlying the making of the sen- 
tence : ' ' Dead — dead — dead — he yet speak- 
eth ! ' '■ — Study the power which comes from 
the rapidity of the next few sentences. — 
Study the suspended sentence beginning,- 
" Disenthralled. ' ' It is an excellent exam- 
ple of this kind of a sentence. By this 
means one is permitted to get the sub- 
ordinate details out of the way first, so that 
at the end the entire attention may be cen- 



ANALYSES OF ORATOKICAL STYLE 79 

tered upon the main idea. Study the se- 
ries of exclamatory sentences. 

Paragraph 13. "0 Illinois, " direct ad- 
dress frequent in oral English. — "Not 
thine, anymore, but the nation's; not ours, 
but the world's." Study the balance 
through the contrast; the ellipsis of the 
sentences ; and the parallel structure. — Ob- 
serve the personification used, and also an- 
other example of direct address. 

The study of this oration over and over 
again will amply repay the student. It is 
thoroughly oratorical in style, and shows 
many of the devices which public speech is 
prone to use. Make an outline of the struc- 
ture of the speech. Compare the short sen- 
tences with the long and see if you can ar- 
rive at any principle underlying the use of 
each. Compare simple sentences with the 
suspended sentence and note the reason for 
each kind. Are there any really involved 
sentences? Are there any unusual words! 
How many of the words used in the speech 
can you clearly define if you had to without 
resort to the dictionary. Imagine a for- 
eigner should ask you to explain to him 



80 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

many of the words, how would you go 
about it? Suppose this foreigner knew 
nothing of the process of grafting one 
plant upon another. How would you make 
the statement: "His life is now grafted 
upon the Infinite,'' clear to him? This is 
an exceedingly profitable exercise. Seek 
other phrases in the speech for use in a 
similar way. 



CHAPTER III. 

PATRIOTISM. 

Page 77 in Selected Speeches for Practice. 

The study and analysis of an oration having as its 
main end clearness, with both belief and action as minor 
ends. 

This address was delivered before a 
body of students upon their graduation 
from college. Before you study the analy- 
sis of the speech think carefully of the oc- 
casion and the nature of the audience. Is 
the address well adapted to each? The 
first four paragraphs are introductory ; do 
they make a skillful approach to the main 
discussion? 

Examine again the principle used here: 
that of impressing a fact not so well un- 
derstood, or so thoroughly remembered, 
by likening it to a very common fact of 
life. The more common the fact, and the 
more well known, used in making such a 
81 



82 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

comparison, the greater the force of the 
comparison. 

Note that in three the speaker takes the 
time to show in detail the points in the 
analogy. There mnst always be a careful 
consideration of the question whether it is 
well to end with the general statement, or 
better to set forth the details which the 
general statement implies. 

The questions in three and four estab- 
lish a personal relationship between the 
speaker and his hearers. It will be neces- 
sary, however, to avoid the interrogation 
in places where the direct assertion is the 
more effective. 

Observe the beautiful balance which is 
obtained in the first and second sentence 
in three. Study these two sentences to get 
their thought values, both stated and sug- 
gested; feel the mood of them, and give 
them orally. You will find much beauty of 
vocal form in them. 

Make a particular study of the words 
used in the first three paragraphs. They 
are chosen with a fine discrimination. It 
will be profitable to trace the logical de- 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 83 

velopment of the thought, and the methods 
used to secure coherence — organic connec- 
tion of sentences and paragraphs. 

It will be seen that in the fifth paragraph 
the author continues the personal relation 
by the use of the pronoun "us." It is 
often the case that a speaker will address 
an audience as "you" and continue to use 
this pronoun throughout the speech. What 
is the subtle psychological effect of each 
word? Suppose you are in an audience 
and a speaker should say to you all: "You 
should believe at least as much in the good- 
ness of God as you do in the dexterity of 
the devil." How would it appeal to you! 
Hear it said the author's way: "Let us 
believe at least as much in the goodness 
of God as we undoubtedly do in the dex- 
terity of the devil." Compare the effect 
of the two. An audience does not like to 
be talked down to. 

Take special note of the structure of 
the last sentence in five. It is an excellent 
example of the suspended sentence. It is 
a very effective sentence. 



84 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

Paragraph 6. Note the use of the word 
"law" in this paragraph. 

Paragraph 10. Note how the speaker 
proceeds from patriotism in general to 
that in particular which touches the indi- 
vidual. This is the principle, that after the 
general truth has been mentioned it is 
nearly always wise to follow with the par- 
ticular truth. Note how coherence and 
compactness are brought about by the par- 
allel constructions each beginning with a 
"that." One follows such structure very 
easily. 

Paragraph 11. Can you find any con- 
nective to connect ten and eleven? Is there 
any suggested thought that secures the 
connection? Observe the arrangement of 
the sentence in the last part of the para- 
graph. Ideas are brought as close to- 
gether as possible. "Affect us as men. 
We are born men," this arrangement at 
the same time brings the word "law" 
which is to be the connective between this 
and the next paragraph at the very end of 
the sentence and paragraph. This is a fine 
bit of sentence building. 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 85 

Paragraph 12. In this paragraph par- 
allelism is the device used to secure proper 
relationship; the same device is used also 
in the next paragraph. You have by this 
time come to the conclusion that it is a 
very common device. It will be found more 
frequently, probably, than any other ora- 
torical method. Attention is called also to 
the summary at the end of the paragraph. 
Summarizing sentences are a great aid to 
clearness. There is a summarizing sen- 
tence at the end of the next paragraph. 
Note parallelism again in this paragraph. 
Be sure to note the added life, vitality and 
incisiveness that is obtained by the per- 
sonification used here. The short state- 
ments also do much to give greater force 
to the thought. 

Paragraph 15. How many lines are there 
before you reach the connecting link be- 
tween this and the preceding paragraph? 
This first sentence is fairly long, yet it is 
easily followed because of its suspended 
form. Memorize this interrogation at the 
end. It is that kind which carries the an- 
swer with it. Speak it and see if the vocal 



86 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

form suggests the kind of answer desired 
by the speaker. 

Paragraph 16. In the first sentence give 
attention to the repetition of words, and 
the elimination of "and" before the sec- 
ond ' ' without. ' ' Note a different construc- 
tion: "Remember that the greatness of 
our country is not in its achievement, but 
in its promise, which cannot be fulfilled 
without that sovereign moral sense and a 
sensitive national conscience." Compare 
the two, observing how the former is not 
only easier to understand, but is more ex- 
act and precise in statement. — "That sov- 
ereign moral sense," linking this with 
what has both been said and suggested 
heretofore. ' ' Commercial success tends to 
make us all cowards," and "Commercial 
prosperity is only a curse if it be not sub- 
servient to intellectual and moral prog- 
ress." These two sentences are epigram- 
matic in nature. Public speech frequently 
does this : crowds a great truth into a very 
small compass of words. Note the balance : 
"now to good God, now to good Devil," 
without the ' ' and. ' ' 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 87 

Paragraph 17. Where is the organic 
connection between this and the foregoing 
paragraph? Observe the suspense of the 
second sentence. Find another epigram- 
matic statement. Make study of the inter- 
rogation at the end. Memorize the sen- 
tence and feel strongly the answer that you 
would have the audience feel, and then 
speak it. Let the mind be intensely busy 
with thinking with great earnestness the 
thought and the answer as you speak it. 

Paragraph 18. Note the "Why." If you 
will observe conversation you will see that 
frequently this word is used when it has 
no real significance. Is it justified here? 
Would you have a comma or an exclama- 
tion point after it ? 

Paragraph 19. The first sentence is a 
link sentence between the general thought 
preceding and the new field of thought he 
is now to bring to his audience. It is an 
answer to the thought which he anticipates 
some are thinking as a result of what he 
has already said. Let this principle be 
stated again : it is frequently not only wise, 
but often necessary that a speaker foresee 



88 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

what thought an audience may be engaged 
in, and by proper guiding statements keep 
the thought from running to the wrong 
conclusion. Observe that he continues the 
practice of repeating certain elements that 
he may make it all the easier for his audi- 
ence to follow him and to think of the more 
important phases of the thought. Study 
the method of the last sentence. 



THE MUCK-RAKER. 

JULIUS KAHN, 

Congressman from California. 

Extract from a speech delivered in the 
House of Representatives, March 26, 1910. 

The study and analysis of an oration having the arous- 
ing of feelings as its end. It is an oration of protest. 
Compare carefully this oration with the one on "Pa- 
triotism." 

On the 14th of April, 1906, upon the oc- 
casion of the laying of the corner-stone of 
the new office building of the House of 
Representatives, President Roosevelt said : 

"In ' Pilgrim's Progress' the man with 
the muck-rake is set forth as the example 
of him whose vision is fixed on carnal in- 
stead of on spiritual things. Yet he also 
typifies the man who, in this life, consist- 
ently refuses to see aught that is lofty and 
fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only 
on that which is vile and debasing. . . . 
89 



90 ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 

The liar is no whit better than the thief, 
and if his mendacity takes the form of 
slander, he may be worse than most 
thieves. It puts a premium on knavery 
untruthfully to attack an honest man, or 
even with hysterical exaggeration to assail 
a bad man with untruth. ' ' 

In this connection I am reminded of an 
incident that occurred in the city of Sac- 
ramento, in 1895, during a session of the 
California legislature. Major Frank Mc- 
Laughlin, a well-known citizen of our state, 
was at the capital attending to some mat- 
ters pending before the legislature. One 
morning there appeared in one of the San 
Francisco newspapers an article which re- 
flected somewhat upon the good name and 
character of an estimable citizen of Oak- 
land, California, wherein it was charged 
that he was gathering a corruption fund in 
order that he might be able to go to the 
Capitol and defeat certain bills that were 
then being considered by the committees 
of the legislature. Indignant at the attack, 
this citizen wired to Major McLaughlin as 
follows : 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 91 

i ' Brand the article in this morning's pa- 
per false as hell! Such tactics will act as 
a boomerang. I am coming up this eve- 
ning. ' ' 

Whereupon Major McLaughlin promptly 
wired back: 

"I have looked all over Sacramento, but 
I cannot find a 6 false as hell' branding iron. 
I would like to help you propel the boom- 
erang, but I do not know just in which di- 
rection to throw it. Keep f rappe, old man ! 
To-day's newspapers are lost in starting 
to-morrow's fires. ) 

f" 'You may fool all of the people some 
of the time; you may fool some of the 
people all of the time ; but you cannot fool 
all of the people all of the time.' *■? 

The immortal Lincoln ! What a world of 
emotion that name conjures up ! No won- 
der all his biographers speak of the sad 
expression of his countenance. Was ever 
mortal man so vilified, so abused, so tra- 
duced, so defamed as he was in his life- 
time? He was ridiculed, reviled, and lam- 
pooned as no other man in our country's 
history. Gibes and jeers and sneers were 



92 ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 

his daily portion in the newspapers of this 
country, and even in some that were pub- 
lished abroad, during the whole Civil War. 
"The baboon at the other end of the ave- 
nue ' ' and ' ' That damned idiot in the White 
House" were some of the expletives ap- 
plied to him by the muck-rakers of his day. 

Mr. Lincoln was so outraged by the ob- 
loquies, so stung by the disparagements, 
his existence was rendered so unhappy, 
that his life became almost a burden to 
him. Lamon, his lifelong friend, says that 
one day he went to the President's office 
and found him lying on the sofa, greatly 
distressed. Jumping to his feet, he said: 

* ' You know, Lamon, better than any liv- 
ing man that from boyhood up my ambi- 
tion was to be President; but look at me. 
I wish I had never been born ! I had rather 
be dead than as President be thus abused 
in the house of my friends. ' ' 

One delegate at Chicago declared that 
for less offenses than Mr. Lincoln had been 
guilty of the English people had chopped 
off the head of the first Charles. Another 
arose and asserted that 



ANALYSES OF ORATOBICAL STYLE \)6 

"Ever since that usurper, traitor, and 
tyrant has occupied the presidential chair 
the party has shouted, 'War to the knife, 
and the knife to the hilt ! ' Blood has flowed 
in torrents, and yet the thirst of the old 
monster is not quenched. His cry is for 
more blood." 

But why continue the recital of the ca- 
lumnies, the insinuations, the half-truths, 
and the downright lies that were printed 
in abuse of the Great Emancipator f The 
muck-rakers who made his life miserable 
are nearly all rotting in forgotten graves. 
But the name of Lincoln will shine re- 
splendent through all the ages. As long 
as the universe shall endure he will tower, 
giant-like, above the mere pygmies that 
hurled their scurrility at him, and the story 
of his life will prove an inspiration to mil- 
lions of Americans in the generations yet 
to come. 

Mr. Chairman, I could speak at great 
length of the abusive attacks that have ap- 
peared in the newspapers and the maga- 
zines of this country against Grant, and 
Garfield, and Cleveland, and McKinley, 



94 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

aye, and against Theodore Eoosevelt. They 
had their detractors, their defamers. But 
their fame rests secure in the hearts of 
their countrymen. And while they all un- 
doubtedly felt the injustice of the poignant 
shafts of abuse that were hurled against 
them by the muck-rakers of their respec- 
tive periods, who to-day cares or even half- 
way remembers what was the nature or the 
character of the malicious onslaughts? 

And so, my colleagues, we, too, can draw 
this moral from the lessons taught us by 
that fact: (" To-day's newspapers are lost 
in starting to-morrow 's fires. 7 

Analysis. 

It is a very usual device that is illus- 
trated here — that of opening a speech with 
a quotation or an anecdote. In this exam- 
ple would it not have been better to have 
opened with the anecdote rather than the 
quotation! Turn to the close of the ex- 
tract and ascertain if the last sentence 
states the idea developed in the entire ex- 
tract. Does this throw any light upon the 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 95 

question whether the quotation or the anec- 
dote should be given first? Consider the 
paragraph beginning, "The immortal Lin- 
coln !" Is its beginning rather abrupt? 
Will the quotation preceding be remem- 
bered by a large enough number, so that 
they will make the connection readily be- 
tween it and the introduction of Lincoln's 
name? 

Does not the paragraph beginning, ' ' Mr. 
Lincoln was so outraged," come between 
matters that should have been brought 
closer together? Why not mass in one se- 
ries all the examples of abuse instead of 
dividing them by this paragraph? Think 
it over carefully and see if you cannot ar- 
range the whole so that there will be a 
closer and more clearly related order. De- 
liver the two versions and judge which se- 
cures the stronger effect. You may have 
to make some few changes in the wording 
as you rearrange. 



THE TRUE FAST. 

The study and analysis of an oration having the two 
ends of belief and action strongly present. Make a care- 
ful comparison of this oration with the two preceding. 

1. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice 
like a trumpet, and declare unto my people 
their transgression, and to the house of 
Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, 
and delight to know my ways ; as a nation 
that did righteousness, and forsook not the 
ordinance of their God, they ask of me 
righteous ordinances, they delight to draw 
near unto God. Wherefore have we fasted, 
say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore 
have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest 
no knowledge*? Behold, in the day of your 
fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact 
all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife 
and contention, and to smite with the fist 
of wickedness : ye fast not this day so as 
to make your voice to be heard on high. 

2. Is such the fast that I have chosen? 

96 



ANALYSES OF OBATORICAL STYLE 97 

the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it 
to bow down his head as a rush, and to 
spread sackcloth and ashes under him? 
wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable 
day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that 
I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wick- 
edness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and 
to let the oppressed go free, and that ye 
break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy 
bread to the hungry, and that thou bring 
the poor that are cast out to thy house? 
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover 
him; and that thou hide not thyself from 
thine own flesh? 

3. Then shall thy light break forth as 
the morning, and thy healing shall spring 
forth speedily : and thy righteousness shall 
go before thee; the glory of the Lord 
shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou 
call, and the Lord shall answer; thou 
shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I 
am. If thou take away from the midst 
of thee the yoke, the putting forth of 
the finger, and speaking wickedly; and if 
thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and 
satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy 



98 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity- 
be as the noonday; and the Lord shall 
guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul 
in dry places, and make strong thy bones ; 
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, 
and like a spring of water, whose waters 
fail not. — Isaiah 58. 

Analysis. 

Study carefully this short oration. An- 
alyze the sentence structure. Study the 
choice of words. Observe how short the 
thought units are. The compactness is re- 
markable, — not a word could be left out, 
and not a word but has a vital part to play 
in the development of the effect desired. 
Do not fail to observe how the fault of 
monotony is avoided by grouping two or 
more questions within one interrogation 
point. Is this grouping natural and logi- 
cal, or arbitrary? Would monotony be 
avoided by arbitrary grouping? 

Much will be gained by the memorization 
and the delivery of this speech. Let the 
delivery be practiced in two ways. It will 



ANALYSES OF OBATOKICAL STYLE 99 

be noted that the speech begins with a 
mood of stern rebuke. Let the first drill 
be upon continuing this mood of stern ac- 
cusation and rebuke throughout the entire 
speech. When you practice it the next 
time, let your spirit or mood change grad- 
ually, beginning with the second division, 
from rebuke to earnest, kind persuasion. 
When you are speaking of the rewards to 
come from proper living, let there be much 
inspiration and enthusiasm put into the 
spirit of the delivery. 

Compare this speech with that of Abra- 
ham Lincoln at Gettysburg, in the Volume 
of Speeches for Practice. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EXCERPT FEOM THE SPEECH ON 
"THE MYSTERIES." 

ANDOCIDES. 

This and the succeeding oration have impressiveness 
through belief as their ends. Compare thoughtfully the 
method of each. Each attempts to set forth the worth 
of personal character. 

Wherefore, judges, you ought to pity me 
in my misfortune; nay, you ought to hold 
me in honor for what I have done. When 
Euphiletus proposed the most traitorous 
of all compacts, I opposed him, and up- 
braided him as he deserved. Yet I con- 
cealed the crime of the conspirators, even 
when some were put to death and others 
driven into exile through the information 
laid by Teucrus. Only after we were im- 
prisoned and on the point of being put to 
death through the instrumentality of Dio- 
cleides, did I denounce the four conspir- 
ators — Panaetius, Diacritus, Lysistratus, 
100 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 101 

and Chaeredemus. These men, I admit, 
were driven into exile on my account. But 
my act saved my father, my brother-in- 
law, three cousins, and seven other rela- 
tives, all of whom were about to suffer an 
unjust death. These now behold the light 
of day on my account, and they frankly 
admit it. Moreover, the man who threw 
the whole city into confusion and involved 
it in the greatest dangers has been con- 
victed. Finally you have been delivered 
from great dangers and freed from sus- 
picion, one against another. 

Eecall now, judges, whether I speak the 
truth, and do those of you who know, en- 
lighten the rest. And do you, clerk, call 
the persons themselves who were released 
through me; for they know and can tell 
you best. This is so, judges ; as they will 
come up and testify as long as you care to 
listen. . . . 

And now, gentlemen, when you are about 
to pronounce final judgment, there are cer- 
tain things that you should call to mind. 
Eemember that you now enjoy among all 
the Greeks the enviable reputation of be- 



102 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

ing not only brave on the field of battle, 
but wise in the council chamber. Since, 
then, you have the admiration of all na- 
tions, hostile as well as friendly, take care 
that you do not deprive your city of its fair 
fame, or create the impression that your 
success is due rather to chance than 
deliberation. 

I ask you further to have the same opin- 
ion of me that you have of my ancestors. 
Give me the chance to follow their exam- 
ple. They occupy a place in the memory 
of their countrymen by the side of the 
greatest benefactors of the State. They 
served their country nobly and well, chiefly 
through good will to you, and with the fur- 
ther purpose that, if ever they or their 
descendants should fall into misfortune, 
they might find favor and pardon with 
you. Forget them not ; for once their mer- 
itorious deeds served our city in a time of 
need. When our navy was annihilated at 
Aego spot ami, and many were bent on the 
destruction of Athens, the Spartans de- 
cided to save the city through respect for 
the memory of those men who had fought 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 103 

for the liberty of all Greece. Since, then, 
our city was saved through the merits of 
my ancestors; for to the deeds that saved 
our city my ancestors contributed no small 
part. Share with me, then, the salvation 
that you received from the Greeks. 

Consider, also, if you save me, what 
manner of citizen you will have in me. 
Once rich and affluent, I have been reduced 
to penury and want through no fault of 
mine, but through calamities that befell 
our city. Since then I have earned my 
livelihood in an honest way, toiling with 
my hands and brain. Many friends I have, 
too; among them kings and great men of 
the world, whose friendship you will share 
with me. 

If, on the other hand, you destroy me, 
there will be no one left to perpetuate our 
name and family. And yet the house of 
Andocides and Leogaras is no disgrace to 
Athens. But great will be the disgrace if 
I am in exile, and Cleophon, the lyremaker, 
dwells in the house of my fathers — a house 
whose walls are decked with trophies taken 



104 ANALYSES OF OKATOPJCAL STYLE 

by my ancestors from the enemies of their 
country. 

Though my ancestors be dead, let their 
memory still live, and fancy that you see 
their shades solemnly pleading in my be- 
half. For whom else have I to plead for 
me? My father? He is dead. Brothers? 
I have none. Children? None have yet 
been born to me. 

Do you, then, be to me father, brother, 
children. To you I flee for refuge; you 
I supplicate and beseech. Turn, then, in 
supplication to yourselves, and grant me 
life and safety. 

Analysis. 

Make a careful study of the foregoing 
excerpt. Analyze in detail the mode of 
appeal — the various motives and senti- 
ments which are brought into play to effect 
the desired end. Are the points of appeal 
universal, in their application, or such as 
would apply to narrow natures? 

Make a study of the sentence structure, 
and the kinds of words used. The whole 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 105 

excerpt shows an attempt to make the 
structure and style simple, so that it may 
be easily understood. There is a con- 
strained and modest temper that makes 
a strong appeal. There appears much of 
skill and tact in the method of presenta- 
tion. 



ENCOMIUM ON EVAGORAS. 

ISOCEATES. 

When I saw, Nicocles, that you were 
honoring the tomb of your father, not only 
with numerous and magnificent offerings, 
according to custom, but also with dances, 
musical exhibitions, and athletic contests, 
as well as with horse races and trireme 
races, on a scale that left no possibility 
of their being surpassed, I thought that 
Evagoras, if the dead have any feeling of 
what happens on earth, while accepting 
this offering favorably, and beholding with 
joy your filial regard for him and your 
magnificence, would feel far greater grat- 
itude to anyone who could show himself 
capable of worthily describing his mode 
of life and the dangers he had undergone 
than to anyone else ; for we shall find that 
ambitious and high-souled men not only 
prefer praise to such honors, but choose 
106 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 107 

a glorious death in preference to life, and 
are more jealous of their reputation than 
of their existence, shrinking from nothing 
in order to leave behind a remembrance 
of themselves that shall never die. 

Now, expensive displays produce none 
of these results, but are merely an indica- 
tion of wealth; those who are engaged in 
liberal pursuits and other branches of 
rivalry, by displaying, some their strength, 
and others their skill, increase their repu- 
tation ; but a discourse that could worthily 
describe the acts of Evagoras would cause 
his noble qualities to be ever remembered 
amongst all mankind. 

Other writers ought accordingly to have 
praised those who showed themselves dis- 
tinguished in their own days, in order that 
both those who are able to embellish the 
deeds of others by their eloquence, speak- 
ing in the presence of those who were ac- 
quainted with the facts, might have ad- 
hered to the truth concerning them, and 
that the younger generation might be more 
eagerly disposed to virtue, feeling con- 
vinced that they will be more highly 



108 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

praised than those to whom they show 
themselves superior. 

At the present time, who could help be- 
ing disheartened at seeing those who lived 
in the times of the Trojan wars, and even 
earlier, celebrated in songs and tragedies, 
when he knows beforehand that he himself, 
even if he surpass their noble deeds, will 
never be deemed worthy of such eulogies? 
The cause of this is jealousy, the only good 
of which is that it is the greatest curse to 
those who are actuated by it. For some 
men are naturally so peevish that they 
would rather hear men praised, as to whom 
they do not feel sure that they ever ex- 
isted, than those at whose hands they 
themselves have received benefits. 

Men of sense ought not to be the slaves 
of the folly of such men, but, while despis- 
ing them, they ought at the same time to 
accustom others to listen to matters which 
ought to be spoken of, especially since we 
know that the arts and everything else are 
advanced, not by those who abide by estab- 
lished customs, but by those who correct 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 109 

and, from time to time, venture to alter 
anything that is unsatisfactory. 

I know that the task I am proposing to 
myself is a difficult one — to eulogize the 
good qualities of a man in prose. A most 
convincing proof of this is that, while those 
who are engaged in the study of philoso- 
phy are ever ready to speak about many 
other subjects of various kinds, none of 
them has ever yet attempted to compose 
a treatise on a subject like this. 

When a boy, he was distinguished for 
beauty, strength, and modesty, the most 
becoming qualities at such an age. In 
proof of which witnesses could be pro- 
duced : of his modesty, those of the citizens 
who were brought up with him; of his 
beauty, all who saw him; of his strength, 
the contests in which he surpassed his com- 
peers. 

When he grew to man's estate, all these 
qualities were proportionately enhanced, 
and in addition to them he acquired cour- 
age, wisdom, and uprightness, and these in 
no small measure, as is the case with some 



110 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

others, but each of them in the highest 
degree. 

For he was so distinguished for his bod- 
ily and mental excellence, that, whenever 
any of the reigning princes of the time 
saw him, they were amazed and became 
alarmed for their rule, thinking it impos- 
sible that a man of such talents would 
continue to live in the position of a private 
individual, and whenever they considered 
his character they felt such confidence in 
him, that they were convinced that he 
would assist them if anyone ventured to 
attack them. 

In spite of such changes of opinion con- 
cerning him, they were in neither case 
mistaken; for he neither remained a pri- 
vate individual, nor, on the other hand, 
did them injury, but the Deity watched 
over him so carefully in order that he 
might gain the kingdom honorably, that 
everything which could not be done with- 
out involving impiety was carried out by 
another's hands, while all the means by 
which it was possible to acquire the king- 
dom without impiety or injustice he re- 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 111 

served for Evagoras. For one of the 
nobles plotted against and slew the tyrant, 
and afterwards attempted to seize Evago- 
ras, feeling convinced that he would not 
be able to secure his authority unless he 
got him also out of the way. 

Evagoras, however, escaped this peril 
and, having got safe to Soli in Cilicia, did 
not show the same feeling as those who 
are overtaken by like misfortunes. Others, 
even those who have been driven from 
sovereign power, have their spirits broken 
by the weight of their misfortunes; but 
Evagoras rose to such greatness of soul, 
that, although he had all along lived as a 
private individual, at the moment when 
he was compelled to flee, he felt that he 
was destined to rule. 

Despising vagabond exiles, unwilling to 
attempt to secure his return by means of 
strangers, and to be under the necessity 
of courting those inferior to himself, he 
seized this opportunity, as befits all who 
desire to act in a spirit of piety and to act 
in self-defense rather than to be the first 
to inflict an injury, and made up his mind 



112 ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 

either to succeed in acquiring the kingdom 
or to die in the attempt if he failed. Ac- 
cordingly, having got together fifty men 
(on the highest estimate), he made prep- 
arations to return to his country in com- 
pany with them. 

From this it would be easy to recognize 
his natural force of character and the rep- 
utation he enjoyed amongst others; for, 
when he was on the point of setting sail 
with so small a force on so vast an under- 
taking, and when all kinds of perils stared 
him in the face, he did not lose heart him- 
self, nor did any of those whom he had 
invited to assist him think fit to shrink 
from dangers, but, as if they were follow- 
ing a god, all stood by their promises, 
while he showed himself as confident as if 
he had a stronger force at his command 
than his adversaries, or knew the result 
beforehand. 

This is evident from what he did; for, 
after he had landed on the island, he did 
not think it necessary to occupy any strong 
position, and, after providing for the 
safety of his person, to wait and see 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 113 

whether any of the citizens would come 
to. his assistance; hut, without delay, just 
as he was, on that eventful night he broke 
open a gate in the wall, and, leading his 
companions through the gap, attacked the 
royal residence. 

There is no need to waste time in telling 
of the confusion that ensues at such mo- 
ments, the terror of the assaulted, and his 
exhortations to his comrades; but, when 
the supporters of the tyrant resisted him, 
while the rest of the citizens looked on and 
kept quiet, fearing, on the one hand, the 
authority of their ruler, and, on the other, 
the valor of Evagoras ; he did not abandon 
the conflict, engaging either in single com- 
bat against numbers, or with few sup- 
porters against the whole of the enemy's 
forces, until he had captured the palace, 
punished his enemies, succored his friends, 
and finally recovered for his family its 
ancestral honors, and made himself ruler 
of the city. 

I think, even if I were to mention noth- 
ing else, but were to break off my discourse 
at this point, it would be easy to appre- 



114 ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 

ciate the valor of Evagoras and the great- 
ness of his achievements ; however, I hope 
that I shall be able to present both even 
more clearly in what I am going to say. 

For while, in all ages, so many have 
acquired sovereign power, no one will be 
shown to have gained this high position 
more honorably than Evagoras. If we 
were to compare the deeds of Evagoras 
with those of each of his predecessors indi- 
vidually, such details would perhaps be 
unsuitable to the occasion, while time 
would be insufficient for their recital; but 
if, selecting the most famous of these men, 
we examine them in the light of his actions, 
we shall be able to investigate the matter 
equally well, and at the same time to dis- 
cuss it more briefly. 

Who would not prefer the perils of 
Evagoras to the lot of those who inherited 
kingdoms from their fathers ? For no one 
is so indifferent to fame that he would 
choose to receive such power from his an- 
cestors rather than to acquire it, as he 
did, and to bequeath it to his children. 
Further, amongst the returns of princes 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 115 

to their thrones that took place in old 
times, those are most famous which we 
hear of from the poets ; for they, not only 
inform us of the most renowned of all 
that have taken place, but add new ones 
out of their own imaginations. None of 
them, however, has invented the story of 
a prince who, after having undergone such 
fearful and terrible dangers, has returned 
to his own country; but most of them are 
represented as having regained possession 
of their kingdoms by chance, others as 
having overcome their enemies by perfidy 
and intrigue. 

Amongst those who lived afterwards 
(and perhaps more than all) Cyrus, who 
deprived the Medes of their rule and ac- 
quired it for the Persians, is the object of 
most general admiration. But, whereas 
Cyrus conquered the army of the Medes 
with that of the Persians, an achievement 
which many (whether Hellenes or barbari- 
ans) could easily accomplish, Evagoras 
undoubtedly carried out the greater part 
of what has been mentioned by his own 
unaided energy and valor. 



116 ANALYSES OF ORATOEICAL STYLE 

In the next place, it is not yet certain, 
from the expedition of Cyrus, that he 
would have faced the perils of Evagoras, 
while it is obvious, from the achievements 
of the latter, that he would readily have 
attempted the same undertakings as 
Cyrus. Further, while Evagoras acted in 
everything in accordance with rectitude 
and justice, several of the acts of Cyrus 
were not in accordance with religion; for 
the former merely destroyed his ene- 
mies, the latter slew his mother's father. 
Wherefore, if any were content to judge, 
not the greatness of events, but the good 
qualities of each, they would rightly praise 
Evagoras more than Cyrus. 

But — if I am to speak briefly and with- 
out reserve, without fear of jealousy, 
and with the utmost frankness — no one, 
whether mortal, demigod, or immortal, will 
be found to have acquired his kingdom 
more honorably, more gloriously, or more 
piously than he did. One would feel still 
more confident of this if, disbelieving what 
I have said, he were to attempt to investi- 
gate how each obtained supreme power. 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 117 

For it will be manifest that I am not in 
any way desirous of exaggerating, but that 
I have spoken with such assurance con- 
cerning him because the facts which I state 
are true. 

Even if he had gained distinction only 
for unimportant enterprises, it were fitting 
that he should be considered worthy of 
praise in proportion ; but, as it is, all would 
allow that supreme power is the greatest, 
the most august, and most coveted of all 
blessings, human and divine. Who, then, 
whether poet, orator, or inventor of words, 
could extol in a manner worthy of his 
achievements one who has gained the most 
glorious prize that exists by most glorious 
deeds? 

However, while superior in these re- 
spects, he will not be found to have been 
inferior in others, but, in the first place, 
although naturally gifted with most ad- 
mirable judgment, and able to carry out 
his undertakings most successfully, he did 
not think it right to act carelessly or on 
the spur of the moment in the conduct of 
affairs, but occupied most of his time in 



118 ANALYSES OF ORATOKICAL STYLE 

acquiring information, in reflection, and 
deliberation, thinking that, if he thor- 
oughly developed his intellect, his rule 
would be in like manner glorious, and look- 
ing with surprise upon those who, while 
exercising care in everything else for the 
sake of the mind, take no thought for the 
intelligence itself. 

In the next place, his opinion of events 
was consistent ; for, since he saw that those 
who look best after realities suffer the 
least annoyance, and that true recreation 
consists not in idleness, but in success that 
is due to continuous toil, he left nothing 
unexamined, but had such thorough ac- 
quaintance with the condition of affairs, 
and the character of each of the citizens, 
that neither did those who plotted against 
him take him unawares, nor were the re- 
spectable citizens unknown to him, but all 
were treated as they deserved; for he 
neither punished nor rewarded them in ac- 
cordance with what he heard from others, 
but formed his judgment of them from his 
own 'personal knowledge. 

But, while he busied himself in the care 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 119 

of such matters, he never made a single 
mistake in regard to any of the events of 
everyday life, but carried on the admin- 
istration of the city in such a spirit of 
piety and humanity that those who visited 
the island envied the power of Evagoras 
less than those who were subject to his 
rule; for he consistently avoided treating 
anyone with injustice, but honored the vir- 
tuous, and, while ruling all vigorously, 
punished the wrongdoers in strict accord- 
ance with justice ; having no need of coun- 
sellors, but, nevertheless, consulting his 
friends; often making concessions to his 
intimates, but in everything showing him- 
self superior to his enemies; preserving 
his dignity, not by knitted brows, but by 
his manner of life; not behaving irregu- 
larly or capriciously in anything, but pre- 
serving consistency in word as well as in 
deed ; priding himself, not on the successes 
that were due to chance, but on those due 
to his own efforts; bringing his friends 
under his influence by kindness, and sub- 
duing the rest by his greatness of soul ; ter- 
rible, not by the number of his punish- 



120 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

ments, but by the superiority of his intel- 
lect over that of the rest; controlling his 
pleasures, but not led by them; gaining 
much leisure by little labor, but never 
neglecting important business for the sake 
of short-lived ease; and, in general, omit- 
ting none of the fitting attributes of kings, 
he selected the best from each form of 
political activity; a popular champion by 
reason of his care for the interests of the 
people, an able administrator in his man- 
agement of the state generally, a thorough 
general in his resourcefulness in the face 
of danger, and a thorough monarch from 
his pre-eminence in all these qualities. 
That such were his attributes, and even 
more than these, it is easy to learn from 
his acts themselves. 

Analysis. 

The student is urged to make a very 
careful study of the speech by Isocrates. 
The speech of encomium, or eulogy, or 
appreciation is a very common type of 
public appeal. It frequently occurs that 
such speeches lack the interest and the 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 121 

vitality and influence that they should have 
simply because they are mere biographies. 
If the student will make a discriminating 
study of this example he will gain many 
points of suggestion for the modeling of 
this kind of an address. Again, it hap- 
pens that an eulogist overdoes the matter 
of praise. Write a short discussion of 
what you gather of methods and principles 
from your study of this eulogy. 



CHAPTER V. 

The last two speeches, by Aeschines and 
Demosthenes, will make very interesting 
studies of controversial address of a high 
character. Particular attention is to be 
given to studying the means each speaker 
uses to win the support of his hearers. It 
is difficult for the modern controversial- 
ist to learn that he loses support with 
right minded and thinking people when 
he adopts the type of speech used by 
Aeschines. Abuse, exaggeration, over- 
zealous, hostile earnestness is bound to 
estrange the audience. Note the great dig- 
nity, temper.ate.ness, manliness of Demos- / 
thenes' appeal. His fair-mindedness and 
the absence of enmity do much to win him/ 
support. 

AGAINST CROWNING DEMOS- 
THENES. 

Aeschines delivered this speech in an 
attempt to prevent Demosthenes from be- 
122 



ANALYSES OF OKATORICAL STYLE 123 

ing crowned for his patriotic services to 
the state. Ctesiphon had made the propo- 
sition that Demosthenes be crowned. 

Corax, one of the earliest of the Greek 
teachers of oratory, laid down the prin- 
ciple that a speaker must avoid offending 
x his audience. By attacking Demosthenes 
, • in the uncontrolled and hateful manner 
he used, Aeschines unquestionably hurt 
himself and greatly lessened his chance 
of winning his audience to his point of 
view. It is a great question whether abuse 
and uncontrolled passion ever secure the 
result desired when thinking men and 
women are being addressed. 
Much of the speech is omitted. 

I may here foretell the part he will play 
when he sees that you are in earnest in 
your endeavor to hold him to his true 
course. Ctesiphon will introduce that arch 
impostor, that plunderer of the public, who 
has cut the constitution into shreds; the 
man who can weep more easily than others 
laugh, and from whom perjury flows in 
ready words. 



124 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

He can, I doubt not, change his tone, and 
pass from tears to gross abuse, insult the 
citizens who are listening outside, and 
cry out that the partisans of oligarchical 
power, detected by the hand of truth, are 
pressing round the prosecutor to support 
him, while the friends of the constitution 
are rallying round the accused. And when 
he dares to speak so, answer thus his sedi- 
tious menaces: "What, Demosthenes, had 
the heroes who brought back our fugitive 
citizens from Phyle been like you, our dem- 
ocratic form of government had ceased 
to exist! Those illustrious men saved the 
state exhausted by great civil disorders 
in pronouncing that wise and admirable 
sentence * oblivion of all offenses. ' But 
you, more careful of your rounded periods 
than of the city's safety, are willing to 
reopen all her wounds. ' ' 

"When this perjurer shall seek for credit 
by taking refuge in his oaths, remind him 
that to the foresworn man who asks belief 
in them from those he has deceived so 
often, of two things one is needful, neither 
of which exists for Demosthenes ; he must 



ANALYSES OF OEATOKICAL STYLE 125 

either get new gods, or an audience not 
the same. And to his tears and wordy 
lamentations, when he shall ask, "Whither 
shall I fly, Athenians, should you cast me 
out, I have not where to rest?" reply, 
"Where shall the people seek refuge, 
Demosthenes; what allies, what resources, 
what reserve have you prepared for us? 
We all see what you have provided for 
yourself. When you have left the city, 
you shall not stop, as you would seem, to 
dwell in Piraeus, but, quickly thence de- 
parting, you shall visit other lands with all 
the appointments for your journey pro- 
vided through your corruption from Per- 
sian gold or public plunder." 

But why at all these tears, these cries, 
this voice of lamentation? Is it not Ctesi- 
phon who is accused, and even for him 
may not the penalty be moderated by you? 
Thou pleadest not, Demosthenes, either 
for thy life, thy fortune, or thy honor! 
Why is he then so disquieted? About 
crowns of gold and proclamations in the 
theatre against the laws: the man who, 
were the people so insensate or so forget- 



126 ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 

ful of the present as to wish to crown him 
in this time of public distress, should him- 
self step forth and say, "Men of Athens, 
while I accept the crown, I disapprove the 
proclamation of the honor at a time like 
this: it should not be in regard to things 
for which the state is now mourning and 
while it is in the depth of grief.' ' Would 
not a man whose life was really upright 
so speak out; only a knave who assumes 
the garb of virtue would talk as you do? 
Let none of you, by Hercules, be appre- 
hensive lest this high-souled citizen, this 
distinguished warrior, from loss of this 
reward should on his return home take 
his life. The man who rates so low your 
consideration as to make a thousand inci- 
sions on that impure and mortgaged head 
which Cte siphon proposes against all law 
to honor with a crown, makes money of his 
wounds by bringing actions for the effects 
of his own premeditated blows. Yes, that 
crown of his so often battered, that per- 
haps even now it bears upon it the marks 
of Midias ' anger, that crown which brings 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 127 

its owner in an income, serves both for 
revenue and head! . . . 

And can it be that he whom you have 
thought worthy by your decree, of the 
honor of this crown, is so unknown to the 
public which has been so largely benefited 
by him that you must procure assistance 
to speak in his behalf? Ask of the jurors 
whether they know Chabrias, Iphicrates 
and Timotheus, and learn from them why 
they have honored and erected statues to 
them? Will they not proclaim with one 
voice that they rendered honor to Chabrias 
for his naval victory near Naxos ; to Iphi- 
crates for having cut off a Spartan corps ; 
to Timotheus for his expedition to Cor- 
cyra; to other heroes for their many glo- 
rious achievements? Ask them now why 
Demosthenes is to be rewarded. Is it for 
his venality, for his cowardice, for his 
base desertion of his post in the day of 
battle? In honoring such an one will you 
not dishonor yourselves and the gallant 
men who have laid down their lives for 
you in the field? whose plaintive remon- 
strances against the crowning of this man 



128 ANALYSES OF OKATOBICAL STYLE 

you may almost seem to hear! Strange, 
passing strange, does it seem, Athenians, 
that you banish from the limits of the state 
the stocks and stones, the senseless im- 
plements which have unwittingly caused 
death by casualty; that the hand which 
has inflicted the wound of self-destruction 
is buried apart from the rest of the body; 
and that yet you can render honor to this 
Demosthenes, by whose counsels this last 
fatal expedition in which your troops were 
slaughtered and destroyed was planned! 
The victims of this massacre are thus 
insulted, in their graves, and the survivors 
outraged and discouraged when they be- 
hold the only reward of patriotic valor to 
be an unremembered death and a disre- 
garded memory! And last and most im- 
portant of all consequences, what answer 
shall you make to your children when they 
ask you after what examples they shall 
frame their lives ? It is not, men of Athens 
— you know it well — it is not the palaestra, 
the seminary, or the study of the liberal 
arts alone, which form and educate our 
youth. Of vastly greater value are the 



ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 129 

lessons taught by these honors publicly 
conferred. Is a man proclaimed and 
crowned in the theatre for virtue, courage, 
and patriotism when his irregular and 
vicious life belies the honor, the young 
who witness this are perverted and cor- 
rupted ! In a profligate and a pander, such 
as Ctesiphon, sentenced and punished, an 
instructive lesson is given to the rising 
generation. Has a citizen voted in oppo- 
sition to justice and propriety, and does 
he, on his return to his house, attempt to 
instruct his son; disobedience surely fol- 
lows, and the lesson is justly looked upon 
as importunate and out of place. Pro- 
nounce your verdict then, not as simple 
jurors, but as guardians of the State, 
whose decision can be justified in the eyes 
of their absent fellow citizens who shall 
demand a strict account of it. Know ye 
not, Athenians, that the people is judged 
by the ministers whom it honors; will it 
not be disgraceful, then, that you shall 
be thought to resemble the baseness of 
Demosthenes, and not the virtues of your 
ancestors? 



130 ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 

How, then, is this reproach to be 
avoided? It must be by distrusting the 
men who usurp the character of upright 
and patriotic citizens, which their entire 
conduct gainsays. Good will and zeal for 
the public interest can be readily assumed 
in name; oftentimes those who have the 
smallest pretensions to them by their con- 
duct seize upon and take refuge behind 
these honorable titles. When you find, 
then, an orator desirous of being crowned 
by strangers and of being proclaimed in 
presence of the Greeks, let him, as the law 
requires in other cases, prove the claim 
which he asserts by the evidence of a life 
free from reproach, and a wise and blame- 
less course. If he be unable to do this, 
do not confirm to him the honors which 
he claims, and try at least to preserve the 
remnant of that public authority which is 
fast escaping from you. Even now, strange 
as it should seem, are not the Senate and 
the people passed over and neglected, and 
despatches and deputations received by 
private citizens, not from obscure individ- 
uals, but from the most important person- 



ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 131 

ages of Europe and Asia? Far from de- 
nying that for which under our laws the 
punishment is death, it is made the subject 
of open public boast; the correspondence 
is exhibited and read ; and you are invited 
by some to look upon them as the guard- 
ians of the constitution, while others de- 
mand to be rewarded as the saviors of the 
country. The people, meanwhile, as if 
struck with the decrepitude of age and 
broken down by their misfortunes, pre- 
serve the republic only in name and aban- 
don to others the reality of authority. You 
thus retire from the Assembly, not as from 
a public deliberation, but as from an enter- 
tainment given at common cost where each 
guest carries away with him a share of the 
remnants of the feast. That I speak forth 
the words of truth and soberness, hearken 
to what I am about to say. 

It distresses me to recur so often to our 
public calamities, but when a private citi- 
zen undertook to sail only to Samos to get 
out of the way, he was condemned to death 
on the same day by the Council of Areop- 
agus as a traitor to his country. Another 



132 ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 

private citizen, unable to bear the fear 
which oppressed him, and sailing in con- 
sequence to Ehodes, was recently de- 
nounced for this and escaped punishment 
by an equal division of the votes. Had a 
single one been cast on the other side, he 
would have been either banished or put 
to death. Compare these instances with 
the present one. An orator, the cause of 
all our misfortunes, who abandons his post 
in time of war and flies from the city, pro- 
claims himself worthy of crowns and proc- 
lamations. Will you not drive such a man 
from your midst as the common scourge 
of Greece; or will you not rather seize 
upon and punish him as a piratical brag- 
gart who steers his course through our 
government by dint of phrases? 

Consider, moreover, the occasion on 
which you are called upon to record your 
verdict. In a few days the Pythian Games 
will be celebrated, and the assembled 
Greeks will all be reunited in your city. 
She has already suffered much disparage- 
ment from the policy of Demosthenes: 
should you now crown him by your votes 



ANALYSES OF OEATOEICAL STYLE 133 

you will seem to share the same opinion 
as the men who wish to break the common 
peace. By adopting the contrary course 
you will free the state from any such sus- 
picion. 

Let your deliberations, then, be in ac- 
cord with the interests of the city; it is 
for her, and not a foreign community, you 
are now to decide. Do not throw away 
your honors, but confer them with discern- 
ment upon high-minded citizens and de- 
serving men. Search with both eyes and 
ears as to who they are among you who 
are today standing forth in Demosthenes f 
behalf. Are they the companions of his 
youth who shared with him the manly toils 
of the chase or the robust exercises of the 
palaestra? No, by the Olympian Jove, he 
has passed not his life in hunting the wild 
boar or in the preparation of his body for 
fatigue and hardship, but in the exercise 
of chicane at the cost of the substance of 
men of wealth ! 

Examine well his vainglorious boasting 
when he shall dare to say that by his em- 
bassy he withdrew the Byzantines from 



134 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

the cause of Philip; that by his eloquence 
he detached from him the Acarnanians, 
and so transported the Thebans as to con- 
firm them upon your side. He believes 
indeed that you have reached such a point 
of credulity that you are ready to be per- 
suaded by him of anything he may choose 
to utter, as if you had here in your midst 
the goddess Persuasion herself, and not 
an artful demagogue. 

And when, at the close of his harangue, 
Demosthenes shall invite the partakers of 
his corruption to press round and defend 
him, let there be present in your imagina- 
tion upon the 'platform from which I am 
now speaking the venerable forms of the 
ancient benefactors of the state, arrayed 
in all their virtue, to oppose these men's 
insolence. I see among them the wise 
Solon, that upright lawgiver who founded 
our popular government upon the sound- 
est principles of legislation, gently advis- 
ing you with his native moderation not to 
place your oaths and the law under the 
control of this man's discourse. And Aris- 
tides, by whose equity the imposts upon 



ANALYSES OF OEATORICAL STYLE 135 

the Greeks were regulated, whose daugh- 
ters, left in poverty through his incorrupti- 
ble integrity, were endowed by the state, 
Aristides is seen complaining of this out- 
rage upon justice, and demanding whether 
the descendants of the men who thought 
worthy of death and actually banished 
from their city and country Arthmius the 
Zelian, then living in their midst and en- 
joying the sacred rights of hospitality for 
merely bringing Persian gold into Greece, 
are now going to cover themselves with 
disgrace by honoring with a crown of gold 
the man who has not simply brought hither 
the stranger's money, but is enjoying here 
the price of his treason. And Themistocles 
and the men who fell at Marathon and 
Plataea, think you that they are insensible 
to what is taking place? Do not their 
voices cry out from the very tombs in 
mournful protests against this perverse 
rendering of honor to one who has dared 
to proclaim his union with the barbarians 
against the Greeks? 

As for me, Earth and Sun, Virtue, 
and thou, Intelligence, by whose light we 



136 ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 

are enabled to discern and to separate good 
from evil, as for me, I have directed my 
efforts against this wrong. I have lifted 
up my voice against this injustice! If I 
have spoken well and loftily against this 
crime, I have spoken as I could have 
wished; but if my utterances have been 
feeble and ill-directed, still they have been 
according to the measure of my strength. 
It is for you, men of Athens and jurors, 
to weigh carefully both what has been 
spoken and what has been left unsaid, and 
to render such a decision as shall not only 
be upright but for the advantage of the 
State. — A eschines. 

DEMOSTHENES ON THE CROWN. 

1. I begin, men of Athens, by praying 
to every god and goddess, that the same 
good-will, which I have ever cherished 
toward the commonwealth and all of you, 
may be requited to me on the present trial. 
I pray likewise — and this specially con- 
cerns yourselves, your religion, and your 
honor — that the gods may put it in your 
minds, not to take counsel of my opponent 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 137 

touching the manner in which I am to be 
heard — that would indeed be cruel! — but 
of the laws and of your oath ; wherein (be- 
sides the other obligations) it is prescribed 
that you shall hear both sides alike. 

2. Many advantages hath Aeschines over 
me on this trial; and two especially, men 
of Athens. First, my risk in the contest 
is not the same. It is assuredly not the 
same for me to forfeit your regard, as for 
my adversary not to succeed in his indict- 
ment. My second disadvantage is, the nat- 
ural disposition of mankind to take pleas- 
ure in hearing invective and accusation, 
and to be annoyed by those who praise 
themselves. To Aeschines is assigned the 
part which gives pleasure; that which is 
(I may fairly say) offensive to all, is left 
for me. And if, to escape from this, I 
make no mention of what I have done, I 
shall appear to be without defense against 
his charges, without proof of my claims 
to honor ; whereas, if I proceed to give an 
account of my conduct and measures, I 
shall be forced to speak frequently of my- 
self. I will endeavor, then, to do so with 



138 ANALYSES OF OKATOPJCAL STYLE 

all becoming modesty : what I am driven to 
by the necessity of the case will be fairly 
chargeable to my opponent who has insti- 
tuted such a prosecution. 

3. Many accusations and falsehoods 
hath Aeschines urged against me, Athe- 
nians, but one thing surprised me more 
than all, that, when he mentioned the late 
misfortunes of the country, he felt not as 
became a well-disposed and upright citi- 
zen, he shed no tear, experienced no such 
emotion: with a loud voice exulting, and 
straining his throat, he imagined appar- 
ently that he was accusing me, while he 
was giving proof against himself, that our 
distresses touched him not in the same 
manner as the rest. 

4. A person who pretends, as he did, to 
care for the laws and constitution, ought 
at least to have this about him, that he 
grieves and rejoices for the same cause as 
the people, and not by his politics to be 
enlisted in the ranks of the enemy, as 
Aeschines has plainly done, saying that I 
am the cause of all, and that the common- 
wealth has fallen into troubles through 



ANALYSES OF OKATOKICAL STYLE 139 

me, when it was not owing to my views or 
principles that you began to assist the 
Greeks; for, if you conceded this to me, 
that my influence caused you to resist the 
subjugation of Greece, it would be a higher 
honor than any that you have bestowed 
upon others. I myself would not make 
such an assertion, and Aeschines, if he 
acted honestly, would never, out of enmity 
to me, have disparaged and defamed the 
greatest of your glories. 

5. But why do I censure him for this, 
when with calumny far more shocking has 
he assailed me? He that charges me with 
Philippizing — what would he not say! By 
Hercules and the Gods ! if one had honestly 
to inquire, discarding all expression of 
spite and falsehood, who the persons really 
are, on whom the blame of what has hap- 
pened may by common consent fairly and 
justly be thrown, it would be found they 
are persons in the various states like 
Aeschines, persons who, while Philip's 
power was feeble and exceedingly small, 
and we were constantly warning and ex- 
horting and giving salutary counsel, sacri- 



140 ANALYSES OF ORATORICAL STYLE 

need the general interests for the sake of 
selfish lucre, deceiving and corrupting 
their respective countrymen, until they 
made them slaves. 

6. The day will not last me to recount 
the names of the traitors. These, O Athe- 
nians, are men of the same politics in their 
own countries as this party among you, — 
profligates, and parasites, and miscreants, 
who have each of them crippled their 
fatherlands; toasted away their liberty, 
first to Philip and last to Alexander ; while 
freedom and independence, which the 
Greeks of olden time regarded as the test 
and standard of well-being, they have an- 
nihilated. 

7. Of this base and infamous conspiracy 
and profligacy — or rather, Athenians, if 
I am to speak in earnest, of this betrayal 
of Grecian liberty — Athens is by all man- 
kind acquitted, owing to my counsels ; and 
I am acquitted by you. Then do you ask 
me, Aeschines, for what merit I claim to 
be honored? I will tell you. Because, 
while all the statesmen in Greece, begin- 
ning with yourself, have been corrupted 



ANALYSES OF OKATOBICAL STYLE 141 

formerly by Philip and now by Alexander, 
me neither opportunity, nor fair speeches, 
nor large promises, nor hope, nor fear, nor 
anything else could tempt or induce to be- 
tray aught that I considered just and bene- 
ficial to my country. 

8. Whatever I have advised my fellow- 
citizens, I have never advised like you men, 
leaning as in a balance to the side of profit : 
all my proceedings have been those of a 
soul upright, honest, and incorrupt: in- 
trusted with affairs of greater magnitude 
than any of my contemporaries, I have 
administered them all honestly and faith- 
fully. Therefore do I claim to be honored. 

9. As to this fortification, for which you 
ridiculed me, of the wall and fosse, I re- 
gard them as deserving of thanks and 
praise, and so they are; but I place them 
nowhere near my acts of administration. 
Not with stones nor with bricks did I for- 
tify Athens: nor is this the ministry on 
which I most pride myself. Would you 
view my fortifications aright, you will find 
arms, and states, and posts, and harbors, 
and galleys, and horses, and men for their 
defense. These are the bulwarks with 



142 ANALYSES OF OKATOEICAL STYLE 

which I protected Attica, as far as was 
possible by human wisdom; with these I 
fortified our territory, not the circle of 
Piraeus or the city. Nay more ; I was not 
beaten by Philip in estimates or prepara- 
tions; far from it; but the generals and 
forces of the allies were overcome by his 
fortune. 

10. If the power of some deity or of for- 
tune, or the worthlessness of commanders, 
or the wickedness of you that betrayed 
your countries, or all these things together, 
injured and eventually ruined our cause, 
of what is Demosthenes guilty? Had there 
in each of the Greek cities been one such 
man as I was in my station among you; 
or rather, had Thessaly possessed one sin- 
gle man, and Arcadia one, of the same sen- 
timents as myself, none of the Greeks 
either beyond or within Thermopylae 
would have suffered their present calam- 
ities; all would have been free and inde- 
pendent, living prosperously in their own 
countries with perfect safety and security, 
thankful to you and the rest of the Athe- 
nians for such manifold blessings through 
me. 



INDEX 



Action, speeches to secure, 47. 

Aeschines' speech "Against Crowning Demosthenes,'* 

122-136; comments upon, 122. 
"Affairs in Cuba," speech by John M. Thurston, 38-47; 

analysis of, 47-53. 
Andocides' "The Mysteries," excerpts from, 100-104; 

analysis of speech, 104, 105. 
Anecdote used to open speech, 94. 
Anticipating an opposing argument, 51. 
Atmosphere, to create, 60, 61. 



Balanced sentences, 76-79. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, his oration on "Abraham Lin- 
coln," 64-73; analysis of oration, 73-80; his relations 
with Lincoln, 73. 

Burke, Edmund, his speech "On Moving His Resolutions 
for Conciliation with the Colonies," 9-29; analysis of 
his speech, 29-37, 47; care of statement characteristic 
of, 35; his care to guard everything he said, 36. 



Cicero, on "The Nature, Greatness, and Rewards of 

Eloquence," 3-8. 
Climax, 76, 77. 

Coherence, how secured, 61, 63, 76. 
143 



144 INDEX 

Compactness of oration, 98. 

Comparison, the value of, 81, 82. 

"Conciliation with the Colonies," Edmund Burke's 

speech "On Moving His Resolutions for," 9-29; 

analysis of, 29-37, 47. 
Controversial address, 122. 
Corax, oldest of Greek teachers of oratory, 36, 123. 



Demosthenes' speech "On the Crown," comments upon, 

122; text of speech, 136-142. 
Details, treatment of, 82. 
Direct address, 79. 

£ 

Ellipsis, use of, 52, 79. 

Emotional color obtained by use of forceful words, 75. 
Encomium, as a type of public appeal, 120, 121. 
"Encomium on Evagoras," by Isocrates, 106-120; analy- 
sis of, 120, 121. 
Epigrammatic sentences, 86. 
Eulogy, as a type of public appeal, 120, 121. 
Exclamation, a device peculiar to oratory, 74. 

F 

Eigurative speech, 75. 

6 

General truth to be followed by particular truth, 84. 
Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's, 99. 



INDEX 145 

H 

'Heroism of the Unknown, The," 54-59; analysis of, 
59-63. 



Increase of words: longer and shorter forms contrasted, 
61, 79. 

Interrogative sentences, 52, 82. 

Inventive ability to be called into use, 74. 

Inversion, 60, 61. 

Isocrates, his "Encomium on Evagoras," 106-120; analy- 
sis of the Encomium, 120, 121. 



Kahn, Julius, speech ("The Muck-raker") by, 89-94; 
analysis of speech, 94, 95. 



"Lincoln, Abraham," by Henry Ward Beecher, 64-73; 

analysis of, 73-80. 
Lincoln, Abraham, his relations with Henry Ward 

Beecher, 73; his Gettysburg Address, 99. 
Link between two thoughts, sentence serving as, 87. 



Memorization of "The True Fast," 98, 99. 

Metaphor, use of, 75. 

Monotony, how avoided, 98. 

"Muck-raker, The," speech by Julius Kahn, 89-94; analy- 
sis of, 94, 95. 

"Mysteries, The," by Andocides, excerpts from, 100-104; 
analysis of, 104, 105. 



146 INDEX 

N 

"Nature, Greatness, and Rewards of Eloquence, The," 
by Cicero, 3-8. 



Oratorical composition, the study of, 1. 
Oratorical style, study of the masters an aid in acquir- 
ing, 2. 



Paragraphs knit together, 30-32, 35. 

Parallel construction, favorite method of speech, 33, 
77, 79. 

Parallelism employed to secure proper relationship be- 
tween thoughts, 62, 77, 85. 

Particular truth to follow general truth, 84. 

Patriotism, development of the spirit of, 60. 

"Patriotism," oration, analysis of, 81-88. 

Personification, use of, 75, 79, 85. 

Potter, Bishop, his oration, "The Heroism of the Un- 
known," 54-59; analysis of oration, 59-63. 

Pronouns used in addressing an audience, 83. 



Question at end of paragraph, 52. 
Quotation used to open speech, 94. 



R 



Repetition of same form leads to cumulation of power 
and cumulation of facts, 52, 53. 



INDEX 147 

s 

"Scholar and the State, The/' Bishop Potter, quotation 

from, 59. 
Sentence building, fine points of, 84. 
Short sentences and statements, 52. 
Short statements, force secured by use of, 85. 
Simple sentences make it easy to follow thought, 33. 
Sources of information stated, 36. 
Statement, care of, characteristic of Burke, 35. 
Statistics, how to place clearly before audience, 37. 
Summary at end of paragraph, 85. 
Suspended sentence, 77, 78, 83, 85, 87. 
Synonyms, cases where it is possible to use, 30, 32. 



Thurston, John M., his speech, "Affairs in Cuba," 38-47; 

analysis of his speech, 47-53. 
Transitional paragraph, 36. 
"True Fast, The," oration (Isaiah 58), 96-98; analysis 

of, 98, 99. 
Truth, reasons why a speaker should adhere to the, 35. 

W 

"Why," use of, in conversation, 87. 
Words, study of, 30, 32. 

Wrong conclusion, to keep an audience from running to 
the, 88. 

Y 

"You," an audience addressed as, 83. 

















n* 





















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Treatment Date: Dec. 2007 










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